PARIS (Reuters) - The French state has enough cash available from previous share sales to fund the purchase of a 20 percent stake in Alstom (>> ALSTOM), Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg said on Tuesday.

The French state secured an option to buy 20 percent of Alstom from its current top shareholder Bouygues (>> BOUYGUES) on Sunday, clearing the way for an agreed tie-up between Alstom and General Electric (>> General Electric Company).

"Following the sale of (shares in) Airbus (>> AIRBUS GROUP), Safran (>> SAFRAN) and Aeroports de Paris (>> ADP), we now have over 2 billion euros that will be used to take that stake in Alstom," Montebourg told France's lower house during question time.

Shares in Safran, EDF (>> EDF), Orange (>> ORANGE SA) and Airbus had on Monday been the worst performers on the Paris stock exchange, as traders feared the government would need to sell shares in those companies to fund the purchase.

(Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Natalie Huet, Editing by dominique Vidalon)

Stocks treated in this article : ALSTOM, BOUYGUES, AIRBUS GROUP, ORANGE SA, SAFRAN, General Electric Company, EDF, ADP