* VTB says has no liquidity commitments in Corpbank

* Shareholders must signal intentions by Friday

* Govt denies rift with central bank over Corpbank

* Bulgaria CDS at highest level since Nov 2013

(Adds quote, details, swaps, background)

By Megan Davies and Tsvetelia Tsolova

MOSCOW/SOFIA, June 24 (Reuters) - Russian bank VTB VTBR.MM said it had no plan to inject capital into Bulgaria's Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) 6C9.BB , making it more likely the lender will be nationalised in July.

Customers rushed to withdraw money from Bulgaria's fourth-largest lender last week after media reports of suspect deals involving the bank and its top shareholder. The country's central bank took control of Corpbank, froze its operations and started rescue talks with shareholders.

Both Corpbank and its biggest investor, Bulgarian businessman Tsvetan Vassilev, deny any wrongdoing.

Vassilev owns just over half of the company, Oman's sovereign wealth fund has around 30 percent and VTB investment arm VTB Capital owns 9.1 percent. The government has given them until Friday to commit funds to a capital increase.

If the rescue talks fail, Bulgaria plans to nationalise Corpbank with an infusion of capital from two state institutions. ID:nL6N0P41V9

The Omanis have not yet said if they will support Corpbank.

VTB Capital played down its role in Corpbank on Tuesday, saying it came by its stake as the result of a structured finance transaction. Its exposure to Corpbank did not exceed 10 million euros from the outset, the bank said, and the amount was fully hedged.

"VTB Group does not have any liquidity commitments and does not have any plans to provide any liquidity or capital resources to (Corpbank)," VTB Capital said in a statement.

The central bank has begun delving into Corpbank's accounts to find out what went wrong. It says Corpbank is not bankrupt, that its problems were an isolated case and that they posed no risk to Bulgaria's banking system.

The crisis has hit Bulgaria just as the government was gearing up for a European investor road show to raise 1.5 billion euros from bond sales. The money is needed to roll over bonds maturing in January and finance the budget deficit.

"ALARM BELLS"

The bank run is a further blow to the European Union's poorest member state, which has been rocked by two years of political instability, sluggish economic growth, high unemployment and a failure to implement key reforms.

Investors are now wondering "why the government and the central bank allowed the (Corpbank) issue to go this far without ringing the alarm bells at an earlier stage?" said Simon Quijano-Evans, an analyst at Commerzbank.

He said investors should take "a cautious approach" for the time being as there was a volatile political backdrop but the authorities were looking to resolve the Corpbank situation as quickly as possible.

The fall-out from the bank run is already being felt in international markets, with Bulgaria's credit default swaps (CDS) rising to their highest since November 2013, according to Markit data.

Bulgaria's finance ministry rejected all bids for 50 million levs ($34.75 million) in two-and-a-half year treasury bonds late on Monday after buyers demanded higher yields.

Standard & Poor's downgraded Bulgaria's sovereign credit rating to one notch above junk earlier in June, before the Corpbank crisis, citing the political turmoil. The country is likely to hold a snap election in September or October.

"When something like (Corpbank) pops up then it certainly jumps up on the risk radar of investors... The rating is right to the bottom of investment grade so there are obviously reforms that need to be done now," said Quijano-Evans.

Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski's beleaguered government, punished by voters in European Parliament elections in May, denied on Monday that it bungled its response to the Corpbank run.

Late on Friday, the finance minister had played up the prospect of a shareholder rescuing Corpbank, saying talks with VTB and the Omanis were "serious".

Then on Sunday, the central bank abruptly announced a plan to nationalize the lender. On Monday the finance ministry said this would only happen if the talks with shareholders fail.

Defending its handling of the case, the finance ministry said on Tuesday there was "no discrepancy between the Council of Ministers, the finance ministry and Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) on action taken regarding Corpbank".

A spokesman for the central bank also denied any rift with the government. ($1 = 1.4389 Bulgarian Levs)

(Writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

((megan.davies@thomsonreuters.com)(+7 916 391 8262))

Keywords: BULGARIA/CORPBANK VTB