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CANBERRA, Oct 8 (Reuters) The head of Telstra Corp. Ltd. , Australia's top phone company, on Sunday shook off fears a row with the government could hurt an A$8 billion ($6 billion) selldown starting on Monday and said he saw only opportunity ahead.

Telstra last week cut its long-term earnings forecast as the government prepared to launch its prospectus for the A$8 billion public offering -- roughly a third of its 51.8 percent stake.

Telstra's Chief Executive Sol Trujillo, who took over the top job on July 1, 2005, said he was committed to seeing through a five-year plan to transform the company and drive more revenue from new products.

''I think that Telstra ... clearly has a lot of value-creating opportunities ahead of it,'' Trujillo told Australian television.

''We're focused only on those things that now create value over time, and we're not taking any shortcuts.'' Trujillo reiterated that the company expected to see a sharp lift in earnings in the second half of the 05/06 fiscal year.

The government was forced to ditch plans to sell its full holding following a slump in profits at Telstra's high-margin fixed-line business and after a sharp decline in the share price.

The rest of the stake will now go into a separate investment fund which can then be sold down after two years.

The American-born Trujillo, who has had a stormy relationship with Australia's government over the level of regulation enforced on Telstra, said he had walked in ''kind of in the middle of a movie'', but his bluntness had only benefited shareholders.

The most recent row concerned a government appointment to Telstra's board, which existing board members said they were opposed to on grounds of independence and lack of proper due diligence procedure.

''My job is to make sure that all shareholders get an adequate and fair representation of the status of the company,'' Trujillo said.

Telstra on Friday said earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation would grow at a rate of 2 percent to 2.5 percent a year through to fiscal 2010, compared to a forecast last November for growth of 3-5 percent.

The company said costs were expected to grow by 2 to 3 percent a year over the period, compared to a flat forecast previously as its decision not to build a fibre optic network would remove potential savings from replacing copper lines.

But it said plans unveiled last November to transform the company were on or ahead of budget and schedule, and it launched a new high-speed mobile broadband network, ahead of its target for start-up by the beginning of 2007.

Telstra shares closed up 2.7 percent at A$3.83 on Friday.

But its shares are down 2.5 percent since the start of the year and have fallen almost a third from a March 2005 high of A$5.50.

REUTERS DKS RAI0738