Global Internet portal Yahoo is continuing discussions with French conglomerate Vivendi as part of its European acquisitions strategy, its director general said in a newspaper interview on Thursday.

"We think that Vivendi's most interesting activities are (telecoms unit) Cegetel, Canal Plus and (communications group) Havas," Yahoo general manager Fabiola Arredondo told daily Le Figaro.

Following its alliance with Vodafone to set up a European multi-access portal, Vivendi will have to act fast to build content to match, Arredondo said.

"It has the choice between doing that internally, or calling on other partners for help," she said.

Arredondo added Yahoo was also in talks with other major French and European groups, with the aim of improving its portal. The group itself was an unlikely bid target because of the resources that would be required to buy it, she said. Yahoo's priority is mobile access to its services, as the technology is already on the market in Europe, Arredondo said.

A version of Yahoo's site is already available via mobile phone in Germany and will soon be in France and the rest of Europe. The group also plans to launch a digital television offering this year.

The opening up of new media is a plus for Yahoo, Arredondo said, because an enormous part of its subscriber traffic comes from competitors in content such as France Telecom's Wanadoo and Deutsche Telekom's T-Online.

"In the mobile business, we are starting to attract much more traffic because services are multiplying with the arrival of new technologies," she said.