Italian centre-left supports Prodi to stay as PM

Rome, Feb 23: Leaders of Italy's centre-left coalition have agreed to support Romano Prodi's bid to stay on as prime minister, backing him on a 12-point political programme, Prodi's spokesman said today.

The agreement came after a late-night meeting as Prodi, who resigned on Wednesday after a Senate defeat on foreign policy, sought to muster enough support to form a new government.

After winning the narrowest election in post-war history to lead the 61st government since 1945, Prodi quit after nine months in the wake of a revolt by the left in his Catholics-to-communists alliance.

''We have all agreed to the programme so that he can continue to govern,'' said Prodi's spokesman Silvio Sircana yesterday.

''It is up to the president now to decide whether he wants to send him back to parliament (for a vote of confidence) or ask him to form a new government.'' The 12 points include respect for Italy's international commitments, including its military presence in Afghanistan, which was one of the sources of friction that brought Prodi down on Wednesday.

The programme also says Prodi will have the last say in case of divisions within the coalition.

President Giorgio Napolitano held crisis talks with political leaders during the day to determine whether Prodi had enough support to be reappointed prime minister or had to be replaced.

''MADMEN''

''We're a country of madmen,'' said Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema to one newspaper after Prodi unexpectedly stepped down on Wednesday following the defeat in the Senate.

Prodi and D'Alema, who both had previous spells as prime minister cut short, know Italy is accustomed to revolving-door politics, which explains why financial markets could largely shrug off the latest convulsion.

Napolitano, an 81-year-old former communist, must now end the impasse while Prodi stays as caretaker leader.

He scheduled more than two dozen consultations with party and parliamentary leaders over yestrday and today that one newspaper called a game of ''Russian roulette'' for Prodi.

''Any attempt to resuscitate the Prodi government will fail from the outset,'' said Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon who hopes to return to power if an election is held. ''The left has never had a majority in this country and never will.'' Berlusconi was the first post-war premier to serve a full five years, although he had to resign and reform his government due to infighting.

Gianfranco Pasquino, politics professor at the Bologna centre of Johns Hopkins University, said a revived Prodi government ''would be hanging by a thread and not last long''.

''There are too many divisions in this government,'' said shopkeeper Giacobbe Rubin, 50. ''They could carry on but in three months they would collapse again.'' Another scenario is the formation of a majority crossing the right-left divide, excluding both extremes, and leaning on the Union of Christian Democrats (UDC), reluctant Berlusconi allies.

Prodi says he would not lead such a government and UDC leader Pierferdinando Casini said he was ''incompatible with the far left'' especially on legislation like gay rights, where centrist Roman Catholics and leftists are at loggerheads.

Another scenario is Napolitano asking a veteran like Interior Minister Giuliano Amato to form a technical government or caretaker administration. Failing this, Napolitano would have to dissolve parliament and call an early election.

Reuters