WARSAW (Reuters) - France's BNP Paribas (>> BNP PARIBAS) confirmed on Thursday it had bid for Bank BGZ (>> Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej SA), the Polish subsidiary of Dutch lender Rabobank whose sale has sparked interest among Poland's largest lenders.

"The unbinding offer depends on a number of conditions, including a positive result of a due diligence," a BNP statement said.

Rabobank, the biggest Dutch retail bank, said in June it was reviewing its options for BGZ, but had not officially put the unit up for sale.

Sources have told Reuters that BNP faced competition from Spain's Banco Santander (>> Banco Santander, S.A.) and Italy's UniCredit (>> UniCredit SpA) in the race for mostly rural BGZ, with UniCredit confirming it had made a preliminary offer via its Polish unit Bank Pekao (>> Bank Pekao SA).

Media reported last month that BNP had moved to the front of the race for Rabobank's 98.5 percent stake in BGZ, bidding around 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for Poland's No.11 lender.

While some troubled foreign banks have unloaded Polish holdings to boost their capital positions, others are keen to strengthen their place in the biggest eastern European economy, with BGZ seen as the largest target for some time to come.

BNP wants to boost its position in Poland, where its unit (>> BNP PARIBAS BANK POLSKA SA) closed the first nine months of the year with a net profit of around half the 134.3 million zlotys ($44 million) bottom line booked by BGZ.

Poland's bank sector has for years has been under strict supervision and has been relatively healthy in comparison with those of many other European nations. ($1 = 3.0837 Polish zlotys) ($1 = 0.7392 euros)

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Adrian Krajewski; Editing by David Holmes)