MILAN (Reuters) - European shares slightly rose on Monday, helped by stronger telecoms stocks, but a slump in Unilever (>> Unilever plc) following Kraft Heinz's (>> Kraft Heinz Co) abrupt withdrawal of its $143 billion (115.05 billion pounds) bid for its larger rival weighed on the broader market.

By 0822 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 index <.STOXX> was up 0.3 percent, while UK's FTSE <.FTSE> edged up 0.1 percent.

Unilever shares fell 8 percent, making them the biggest fallers on the STOXX. People familiar with the matter said Kraft withdrew its offer because it felt it was too difficult to negotiate a deal following the public disclosure of its bid so soon after its approach to Unilever.

Telecoms stocks <.SXKP> rose 1.3 percent, led higher by a 2.2 percent surge in Deutsche Telekom (>> Deutsche Telekom AG) following a Reuters report that SoftBank (>> SoftBank Group Corp) is prepared to give up control of Sprint (>> Sprint Corp) to Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile US (>> T-Mobile Us Inc) to clinch a merger of the two U.S. wireless carriers.

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni)