Italy minister says may quit after govt loses vote

ROME, July 12 (Reuters) Tensions resurfaced in Romano Prodi's Italian government today when his Justice Minister Clemente Mastella threatened to resign after the government was defeated in a vote on legislation to reform the legal system.

The government lost the vote on an amendment to the bill in the upper house Senate when a few centre-left senators voted with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right opposition.

The government has only two more elected senators than the opposition, making it vulnerable to the slightest cracks in the coalition unity when it tries to pass legislation.

''I want to know if we have or we don't have a majority, right now I don't know which side is the majority,'' Mastella said after the vote.

The Senate leader of Mastella's small centrist party, the UDEUR, later raised the stakes when he told reporters that if the centre-left should lose another vote on the bill Mastella ''won't hesitate to hand in his resignation.'' Mastella has often been a thorn in Prodi's side, clashing with other ministers and saying publicly that Prodi has little chance of raising the government's fortunes.

The multi-party ruling coalition, ranging from moderate Catholics like Mastella, to communists, has been riven with internal tensions since Prodi's narrow election victory in April last year.

Opinion polls show the government is well behind the centre-right, and it was soundly defeated in local elections in the spring.

REUTERS AM BST0019