ROME (Reuters) - Italy's telecommunications regulator on Tuesday backed a plan to separate Telecom Italia's (>> Telecom Italia SpA) fixed-line network and said this would provide significant regulatory benefits for the former telecoms monopoly.

The regulator said Telecom Italia's plan was bold and innovative. "The larger and deeper the separation, the more the regulatory dividend will be significant," Angelo Marcello Cardani, president of regulator AGCOM, said in his annual speech before parliament in Rome.

The board of Italy's biggest phone company approved in May a plan to hive off fixed-line grid assets into a new company, a move that could help it raise cash and that could trigger a regulatory overhaul of the industry.

Telecom Italia, which is trying to cut over 28 billion euros ($36.02 billion) of debt, wants regulatory benefits from the spin-off that increase its ability to compete in its domestic market.

At the moment, Telecom Italia has to abide by stricter rules than rivals Vodafone (>> Vodafone Group plc), Fastweb (>> Swisscom AG) and Vimpelcom's (>> VimpelCom Ltd (ADR)) Wind because it owns the fixed-line network.

Italia Chairman Franco Bernabe has previously said he aimed for a deal with AGCOM by early 2014.

(Reporting by Alberto Sisto, writing by Danilo Masoni. Editing by Jane Merriman)