Riedel made his remarks in testimony Friday before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

Nortel, which has lost money 11 of the past 12 years, has been operating under bankruptcy protection since January. It has been trying to sell its metropolitan Ethernet unit for nearly a year, and has agreed to sell its enterprise business to Avaya Inc. for US$475 million.

Last month it agreed to sell its carrier wireless assets to LM Ericsson of Sweden for US$1.1 billion, but the deal is under scrutiny by the Canadian government.

This is because after an earlier bid by European joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, Research in Motion said it was prevented from bidding, and called on the federal government to review the sale.

This eventually led to Friday's emergency hearing of the parliamentary committee.