* GDF keen on broad agreement with Acea in Italy
* GDF ready to reach accord with Eni over Rome gas grid
(Adds comments on Rome gas grid)
ROME, Oct 14 (Reuters) - French utility GDF Suez SA is ready to reach a broad accord with Rome's Acea SpA but the Italian company has to set the outline, GDF Suez Chairman Gerard Mestrallet said on Wednesday.
The French utility is also ready to reach an agreement with Eni over the Rome distribution gas grid Romana Gas, he added.
Eni sought to sell Romana Gas, valued at around 1.1 billion euros ($1.64 billion), to GDF in 2008 as part of the deal that saw Eni buy Belgian gas company Distrigas from GDF.
In July Eni subsidiary Snam Rete Gas said GDF had decided not to proceed with the acquisition.
"We are big groups, we have good relations with Eni and I have a good personal relationship with the CEO Paolo Scaroni. We can find an accord and find alternatives for compensation," Mestrallet told a news conference on GDF Suez services.
GDF Suez wants to expand its electricity joint venture with the Rome-controlled utility to include natural gas activities. The French company holds 9.98 percent of Acea.
"We are ready to reach quite a wide accord with Acea, but it's up to Acea to decide on the perimeter," Mestrallet said.
"I have said of our ambitions in Italy that we would be happy to go forward with Acea wholly or in part," he added.
Discussions on closer ties hit a barrier in March when Acea's key negotiator, then Chief Executive Andrea Mangoni, resigned after a strategy dispute.
In a newspaper interview on Saturday with Corriere della Sera newspaper, Acea Chaiman Giancarlo Cremonesi said he hoped relations with GDF Suez would be clarified in a month.
The city of Rome controls 51 percent of Acea. (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Stephen Jewkes) ($1=.6710 Euro; Editing by Hans Peters)