Italian president asks premier to stay on, seeking end to country's political crisis

~ Romano Prodi has only a slim majority in the Senate, and his allies are unreliable.

ROME -- Italy's president gave Romano Prodi another shot Saturday, asking him to remain as premier and face a confidence vote in parliament, while Prodi supporters courted outside senators in a frantic effort to end the country's political crisis.

Prodi stepped down Wednesday after an embarrassing parliamentary defeat over foreign policy, including the government's plan to keep troops in Afghanistan. Defections by radical leftists were to blame.

"I will seek a vote of confidence as soon as possible, with renewed impetus and a united and determined coalition," Prodi said after meeting with President Giorgio Napolitano.

But Prodi's majority in the Senate is slim and his allies, ranging from Catholic centrists to Communists, have proven unreliable. Center-left leaders have been shopping for votes among moderates and Catholics to broaden their margin and avert what would be a disastrous defeat in the Senate.

"It's a meat market of senators," said Fabrizio Cicchitto, a leading member of the opposition Forza Italia party. "We have reached a point of unbelievable degradation."

Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi denounced the center-left efforts, saying senators in his center-right coalition were being bandied about as a commodity, and called for new elections.

The opposition "is protesting, and will protest with vigor and will commit in every way to give the country an authoritative majority," Berlusconi said.

The president said there was not enough support for a broad-coalition government, as demanded by Berlusconi, a former premier, and other conservatives. Napolitano also said most party leaders agreed that early elections without a change in Italy's electoral law -- which has increased the influence of small parties -- was pointless.

Political analysts said that even if Prodi wins the confidence vote, it does not ensure future stability.

"I don't see a legislature here. How can you create a government like that and think it will last five years?" said Franco Pavoncello, political science professor at Rome's John Cabot University.

"The fact that the Senate may vote [its] confidence doesn't mean that the government will have the necessary numbers to govern," said Stefano Folli, a leading political analyst who writes for the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. "The worst part begins the following day."

Center-left leaders also are trying to win the support of the seven honorary senators appointed for life. News reports said a vote of confidence in the Senate would not be held before Wednesday, when one of the honorary senators expected to support the government, Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini, returns from the Middle East.

According to counts by Corriere and other dailies, Prodi has the support of 162 senators, including four honorary ones, compared to the opposition's 157. Two more senators for life remain in doubt.

Following the government's resignation this week, coalition allies told Napolitano they were ready to support any bid by Prodi to return to the premiership. They signed up to a new detailed government program that Prodi said would be "nonnegotiable."

The 12-point platform calls for respecting Italy's international commitments in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and gives the premier the final word on any disagreement in the squabbling coalition.

"We must defend this government, defend the political stability of this country ... and defend the credibility of the Italian left," said Massimo D'Alema, the foreign minister.