Italy's foreign minister resigns over euro

ROME -- Italy's foreign minister resigned Saturday after a spat with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the government's lukewarm reception of the euro.

Renato Ruggiero's resignation was likely to spark concerns among other European nations since he was seen as lending credibility to the billionaire media mogul's administration and as balancing some of its right-wing or anti-EU ministers.

Berlusconi's office said Ruggiero and the prime minister agreed on a "consensual" parting.

Tensions between Ruggiero and Berlusconi flared this week after the foreign minister publicly criticized the government's handling of the euro's Jan. 1 launch and some anti-euro comments by several of Berlusconi's top ministers.

Berlusconi fired back, telling the Rome daily La Repubblica daily Friday that he alone directed Italy's foreign policy, not Ruggiero. He said Ruggiero was merely a "technical" functionary carrying out his policies.

Some have blamed the government's less-than-enthusiastic welcome of the euro in part for Italy's slow start in converting to the currency.

Italian lagging behind

On Saturday, EU officials reported that Italy still was lagging behind much of Europe in using euros for cash transactions. Italy, France and Spain all used euros in 25 to 50 percent of transactions Friday, compared to an EU average of about 55 percent and a high of 80 percent or higher in the Netherlands and Greece.

The resignation was the first in Berlusconi's 8-month-old conservative government. There was no word on a replacement.

The opposition immediately condemned as "disastrous" Berlusconi's handling of the crisis and said the prime minister had given into the whims of his right-wing coalition members.

"After only eight months of life, the government has lost its most popular man, showing that instability dominates in a coalition that is already starting to crumble," said the head of the opposition, Francesco Rutelli.

Berlusconi is mistrusted by many European politicians, and the international standing of Ruggiero -- a former president of the World Trade Organization, longtime diplomat, former Eurocrat and international banker -- was seen as a reassurance.

He reluctantly took on the job in Berlusconi's government -- reportedly at the urging of Italy's president -- and frequently clashed with the prime minister.

He complained over Berlusconi's resistance to a new pan-European arrest warrant -- which the prime minister accepted only after heavy EU pressure -- and the decision not to participate in a new transport plane being developed by eight other European nations.

Last week, Ruggiero criticized comments by the economy, defense and reforms ministers, who all expressed doubts about the merits of further European integration and the euphoria over the euro.