MILAN (Reuters) - Roberto Mancini acted in the heat of the moment when he said he would quit as Inter Milan coach after Tuesday's Champions League last-16 defeat by Liverpool, club president Massimo Moratti said.

Mancini said he would leave the Italian champions, who are six points clear at the top of Serie A, at the end of the season in Tuesday's post-match news conference only to make a U-turn the following day.

"It was the coach's reaction to the defeat, a wrong way of letting off steam," Moratti told Rai television on Thursday.

"The coach will talk to the players. (Whether it unsettles the side) will depend on the mentality of the team and the coach in putting things right. It's destabilizing if they want it to be, otherwise not."

Mancini reiterated his remorse on Thursday.

"If I could go back, I wouldn't make that statement because it's not what I think, because Inter are dear to me," he told Sky television.

"It was not premeditated. It wasn't the defeat, it was the extra bitterness for how things went, because we didn't finish 11 against 11 (after Nicolas Burdisso was sent off)."

(Reporting by Paul Virgo in Rome, Editing by Justin Palmer)