Prodi Asked To Stay On As Italy PM

The Italian president asked Romano Prodi on Saturday to stay on as premier and face a new vote of confidence in parliament, seeking a swift end to the political crisis prompted by the government's resignation days ago.

President Giorgio Napolitano announced his decision after holding two days of talks with party leaders and receiving reassurances that Prodi had the necessary parliamentary backing.

"I will seek a vote of confidence as soon as possible, with renewed impetus and a united coalition," Prodi said after meeting with the president.

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, who have been voicing opposition to various government policies, were to blame.

Napolitano said that there was not sufficient support for a broad-coalition government, as demanded by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other conservatives. He 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.

"There was no alternative," Napolitano said.

Following the resignation, all coalition allies said they were ready to support any bids by Prodi to return to the premiership and signed up to a new detailed government program that Prodi said would be "non negotiable."

There was no date yet on when Prodi might go before the two houses of parliament to test his majority.

Prodi has a comfortable margin in the lower house of parliament. But his majority in the Senate is not guaranteed, leading center-left leaders to frantically count the numbers of senators they can rely on and court outsiders — mostly a handful of moderate and Catholic senators — in an effort to broaden the coalition.

They seemed to have persuaded at least one centrist — Marco Follini, a former deputy premier who has since left the conservative coalition led by Berlusconi. Follini told the Corriere della Sera newspaper he would "likely" support Prodi, saying he wanted to take the government away from the influence of radical fringes.

The center-left leaders are also trying to rally the support of some of seven honorary senators appointed for life.