The chief executive of Glencore was quoted on Sunday as saying that the launch of an initial public offering by the global commodities trader was imminent.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Glencore chief Ivan Glasenberg said the $10 billion listing -- which could be the largest to date in London and one of the largest in Europe -- would give the trading company the firepower it needs.

We will get firepower and we can buy assets when opportunities present themselves in areas and sizes that we could not do before, Glasenberg said.

Glencore has kept its plans under wraps since briefing analysts more than a month ago and has consistently declined to comment on the timeline of any IPO.

Sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters that Glencore and its advisors are working to issue the an Intention to Float document in London around mid-April -- this week -- though that could still be delayed.

The FT said Glasenberg declined to specify the day, but quoted unidentified sources close to the deal as saying the ITF document will be filed on Thursday.

The interest from the cornerstones was a lot stronger than we envisaged, Glasenberg said. Markets are in our favor too. We have a strong commodities market.

Glasenberg was also quoted as saying it would make sense for the company to combine with London-based miner Xstrata, in which it owns a 34 percent stake, but added a deal was not on the table.

We believe there is good value in the two companies being together, he said. Why has that not happened? It is a value debate. Xstrata... seems more comfortable for Glencore to go public and get a market price before they may or may not enter into discussions.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris)