China Eastern Airlines will try harder to enlist shareholders' support for a tie-up with Singapore Airlines, the company's chairman was quoted on Thursday as saying.

Li Fenghua told the official newspaper China Daily that China Eastern wanted to hold another shareholder meeting to discuss the planned stake sale.

With the parent of Air China keen to step in with its own deal for the stake, China Eastern's shareholders rejected this month a proposal to sell a 24 percent share to Singapore Airlines and the city state's investment firm Temasek for USD$920 million.

Li did not give a timetable for another shareholder meeting, the newspaper said.

Shortly after the rejection, Air China's parent, China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), proposed a "strategic partnership" with China Eastern.

CNAC said it could take a stake in China Eastern and provide it with fresh capital under a deal that would also involve broad business cooperation between the two airlines.

But the state parent of China Eastern refused to respond to the proposal, saying it was incomplete, insincere and lacked legal validity.