Italy left wins majority in Senate

ROME, Apr 11 (Reuters) Italy's centre-left coalition has won a majority in the upper house Senate, the Interior Ministry said today.

Romano Prodi's centre-left bloc won 158 Senate seats against 156 for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right bloc in April 9-10 elections, the ministry said.

The count was completed almost 28 hours after the polls closed.

Six Senate seats from overseas were the last to be counted and of those four went to the centre-left, one to the centre-right and one to an independent candidate.

The centre-left had already won a majority in the lower house Chamber of Deputies and will therefore have a majority in both houses of parliament.

REUTERS SRS HS2257