(Adds background, other banks)
ROME, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Fiat's creditor banks are not discussing lengthening a three-billion-euro loan they extended to the industrial group last year, the head of one of the banks UniCredito said on Wednesday.
"I really don't think it is being discussed," UniCredito Chief Executive Alessandro Profumo told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting.
Eight banks threw Fiat the lifeline as it struggled through its worst ever crisis last year. Fiat is due to meet the banks on Thursday to update them on the progress of a restructuring plan it hopes will pull it back to operating breakeven in 2004.
Wednesday's MF paper said Fiat and its creditors would discuss pushing back the 2005 expiry of the loan, which is convertible into shares if Fiat cannot pay the money back and continues to fall short of debt-related targets.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Banca Intesa CEO Corrado Passera said there was no reason to expect the banks to convert the loan into equity, not least because anything could change in Fiat's situation by 2005.