Italian President Picks Next PM

Italy's president Friday asked Treasury Minister Giuliano Amato to form a new government after the ruling center-left coalition said Amato could count on their votes in Parliament to win a confidence vote.

If Amato succeeds, he will replace Premier Massimo D'Alema, who resigned on Wednesday after a conservative opposition alliance trounced the center-left a few days earlier in regional voting.

On Thursday, the center-left parties pinned their hopes on Amato, who was dubbed "Dr. Subtle" for his skill in persuading recalcitrant unions to give up benefits, to save them from an early general election.

D'Alema quit after 18 months in power, ending Italy's 57th government since 1945 following a miserable showing by his center-left administration in regional elections on Sunday.

If accepted by Parliament, Amato's first task will be to guide Italy through a key May 21 referendum on electoral reform and until scheduled elections in a year's time.

If Amato's bid is not successful, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi might have to dissolve parliament, triggering a snap general election.

The conservative coalition, headed by Silvio Berlusconi has already called for such snap elections on June 18.

Berlusconi, already planning his next election campaign, told reporters a new opinion poll by Datamedia gave his Freedom Alliance bloc, together with the federalist Northern League party of Umberto Bossi, 60 percent support.

Amato, 61, has said he is flattered to be frontrunner for the job of premier—one he was first parachuted into at the head of a technocrat government in 1992 when Italy was rocked by the "Tangentopoli" (Bribesville) corruption scandals.

Amato served as treasury minister from 1987-89 and returned to the post in May 1999.

Speaking at New York's Columbia University on Thursday, he said the center-left could rise again provided it found the unity that put it in power for the first time in half a century at the last general election in 1996.

In what sounded like a manifesto, he said a candidate needed "a collective leadership" and to focus on "growth based on free market economies but mindful of inequalities."

Some in the center-left want Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio to lead them into the next election and would be happy to see Amato serve as a stopgap.