Italy nears end of vote that may unseat Berlusconi

ROME, Apr 10 (Reuters) Polls opened across Italy today for the final day of voting in a bitter election that could end Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's contentious five-year rule and return the centre left to power.

Voting runs from 7 am to 3 pm and exit polls will tell soon after if centre-left opposition leader Romani Prodi is to take power leading a wide coalition ranging from Roman Catholic centrists to communists.

Opinion polls gave Prodi, a former prime minister and European Commission president, the edge during a campaign that saw candidates trade insults but left many voters wondering if either side had answers to Italy's woes.

''We must have a change. I voted for Berlusconi last time, but I am voting for Prodi now. Italy has become angry and divided,'' 81-year old Nello Di Riso said in central Rome.

Already 66.5 per cent of Italy had voted on the first day of the polls yesterday, Italy's Interior Ministry said, against 81.4 percent at the last general election in 2001 when voting took place on one day.

Opinion polls have not been published in two weeks but Prodi has led the race since returning to Italian politics in 2004 after five years as European Commission head.

Prodi is the only man to have defeated Berlusconi at the polls -- in 1996 -- and gamblers have backed him as a runaway favourite this time around on two popular online betting sites.

Berlusconi is Italy's richest man and Washington's strongest ally in continental Europe and won office in 2001 promising to cut red tape and taxes.

Although the media magnate managed to head the longest-serving administration since World War Two, Europe's fourth biggest economy barely grew and lagged its competitors.

Berlusconi's outbursts also regularly riled foreign partners.

VITRIOLIC CAMPAIGN A combative Berlusconi waged a fiery campaign, using offensive language to describe opposition supporters, denouncing judges and, in a slap at Prodi's left-wing partners, saying communists under Chinese dictator Mao Zedong boiled babies.

The 69-year-old prime minister offered last-minute tax cuts in the closing days of the campaign, hoping to win over the large number of undecided voters.

He told supporters at his final rally he had overtaken the centre left, but his opponents scoffed at the idea.

He even caused a minor stir when he voted yesterday, drawing a reprimand from a scrutineer after he ignored a campaigning blackout and told his mother to vote for his Forza Italia party.

The 66-year-old Prodi, a former economics professor, has juxtaposed his reputation for seriousness and modest means against Berlusconi's wealth and many lawsuits.

Prodi characteristically made no waves when he voted, and only smiled when a woman told him she would vote for his rival.

Prodi has vowed to cut business taxes and to tackle Italy's bulging national debt. But Berlusconi said Prodi's plans would eventually be undercut by his communist allies, as happened following his election victory in 1996.

Both Berlusconi and Prodi have promised to pull Italy's troops out of Iraq, with the prime minister setting an end-2006 target and his challenger saying as soon as possible.

Berlusconi has established warm personal ties with US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and forged closer relations with Israel.

Prodi would be expected to realign Italy's foreign policy with its European Union allies.

REUTERS PR SP1210