Prodi plans for power as vote dispute rages

ROME, Apr 12 (Reuters) Italy faced protracted political limbo today as Romano Prodi said he would not be able to form a new government before mid-May and a dispute over alleged voting irregularities in the general election rambled on.

Prodi has claimed a wafer-thin victory for his centre-left bloc in the April 9-10 poll but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refused to concede defeat and demanded checks on disputed ballots, saying there were ''many murky aspects'' to the vote.

The election was the closest in Italy's modern history. In in the lower house, the centre-left won by just 25,000 votes out of 38.1 million cast.

Prodi said today that he would probably have to wait until a new Italian president is elected next month before he could form a government.

Under the constitution the head of state gives the winner of the election the mandate to form a government. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose term ends on May 18, has indicated that he wants his successor to name the new prime minister.

''The constitutional decision is that probably it will be the new president who will decide to give me the responsibility to govern,'' Prodi told France's Europe 1 radio.

''So we would have to wait until the second half of May,'' he said.

The Senate, lower house and regional representatives will vote on May 12-13 to elect a successor to Ciampi.

Newspapers said Prodi had wanted Ciampi to name him prime minister quickly, but the head of state had balked.

Prodi said he had already had meetings with his allies on the formation of a new government. He was due to hold more talks today with members of his broad coalition, which stretches from Roman Catholic centrists to communists.

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