Italy president summons Prodi, sign he may stay PM

ROME, Feb 24 (Reuters) Italian President Giorgio Napolitano summoned Romano Prodi to the presidential palace today, a sign the head of state is likely to ask him to remain prime minister.

Prodi resigned on Wednesday after he lost a vote on foreign policy in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, plunging the country into political uncertainty.

Napolitano has consulted all political leaders on how to resolve the crisis. Prodi's supporters asked that he be given a second chance to show he can command a majority in parliament, while former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called for fresh elections.

''Today, Prodi's coming back,'' read the front page headline of La Stampa daily which, like most of today's newspapers, bet that Napolitano would ask Prodi to return as prime minister and test his majority with a confidence vote in parliament.

Prodi appeared to have succeeded in luring at least one extra senator to bolster his feeble majority in the upper house.

Marco Follini, a Christian Democrat who briefly served as deputy prime minister in Silvio Berlusconi's government, said he would ''probably'' support Prodi in a confidence vote.

Prodi should also be able to count on the support of a majority of the seven senators-for-life, non-elected elder statesmen, to ensure his return to power.

But Gianfranco Fini, head of the opposition National Alliance, said it would be a ''democratic anomaly'' for Prodi to return to power without a guaranteed majority in parliament.

''The head of state must ensure that in the Senate there is a political majority even without the votes of the life senators,'' he told Corriere della Sera daily.

REUTERS MS PM1515