Italy's Prodi wins key confidence vote to stay PM

Rome, Mar 01: Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi won a confidence vote in the Senate today, allowing him to stay in office and drawing an end to a political crisis prompted by his resignation a week ago.

Prodi won with 162 votes for and 157. He would have had a majority even without the support of four unelected life senators who voted for him.

A second confidence vote is due on Friday in the lower house, where Prodi has a much more comfortable majority.

''I am very satisfied, now we'll go to the lower house,'' he told reporters.

Prodi resigned last week after nine months in office over a foreign policy defeat in the Senate after some leftist members in his nine-party coalition voted against him.

He got a second chance from President Giorgio Napolitano after he rallied his fractious allies behind him playing on their fears that a defeat would clear the way for conservative Silvio Berlusconi to return to power.

However, a poll published today suggested only four in 10 Italians want the centre-left leader to stay on.

Most favour a non-partisan technical government or snap elections, showed the poll in Corriere della Sera daily.

Thirty-nine percent said Prodi would last only a few months and 22 percent gave him 1 to 2 years -- but not a complete five-year term.

Reuters