Hungary has again failed to sell its loss-making national airline Malev but said on Thursday it will not give up after its fourth failure and would continue to seek investors.

"The board of directors concluded that based on a complex financial and business assessment of the valid bids, none of the bids fulfil the business expectations of the owner," state privatization agency APV said in a statement.

APV will now seek to sell Malev through direct negotiations with potential investors and will talk to those that submitted bids or otherwise expressed interest in the failed tender, it added.

Thursday's failure was the second in less than a year and the fourth since the end of communist rule in 1990.

APV declined to detail the financial offers but the business daily Napi Gazdasag said on Wednesday the three bidders offered between 150 million forints (USD$780,200) and 200 million forints for Malev and only proposed to assume a portion of the carrier's nearly 35 billion forint debt.

APV would not name the bidders but earlier reports and disclosures indicate the three bids were made by Russia's Krasair, Hungary's Aviation Solutions, which includes former Malev executives, and an Irish group which operates a small Hungarian regional airport.

Malev said it could not comment on the APV's decision but the airline's recently appointed Chairman Peter Honig earlier said he would be happier if the tender failed and he got up to two years to reorganize the airline before another privatization attempt.

Honig said Malev could shed non-core units, rationalize its fleet, improve marketing and communications, take on discount carriers which have proliferated in Central Europe, and continue targeting the Balkans region.