Prodi sticks to his man in Italy President vote

ROME - Italy's incoming government said on Tuesday it was ready to go it alone and push through its candidate, an ex-communist, for head of state despite opposition from most of Silvio Berlusconi's conservative bloc.

Prime minister-in-waiting Romano Prodi vowed to stick by his man following a third, inconclusive ballot in parliament on Tuesday and hours after his archrival Berlusconi said there was "no room for agreement" on the candidate, Giorgio Napolitano.

The vote for the new head of state is the first major test for Prodi since he narrowly won last month's general election.

It has painfully highlighted the problems he will have in pushing through his policy agenda with a wafer-thin majority.

The post of president is largely ceremonial but under the constitution the head of state names the prime minister and dissolves parliament -- prerogatives which could be crucial for Prodi as he prepares to form a government.

Prodi, who only has a slim parliamentary majority, said his bloc would vote for Napolitano on Wednesday, when the margin needed to elect the president will be substantially reduced.

"We have simply decided all together to vote for Napolitano," he said after a meeting with his top allies.

"The decision was quick and unanimous. I hope there will be the largest possible consensus".

From Wednesday, an absolute majority will be enough to elect Italy's 11th post-war head of state instead of the two-thirds majority required in previous voting rounds.

That means that Prodi will be able to use his coalition's narrow advantage to force his man through if necessary.

The move, however, would underscore the divisions in Italy's electorate and exacerbate tensions with the centre right.

It could also prove a risky gamble, because the secret ballot allows snipers on all sides to vote as they please. On paper, Prodi can count on 540 votes, 35 more than the absolute majority required.

The centre left has appealed to parties in Berlusconi's bloc -- which are divided over Napolitano, an 80-year old life senator for the Democrats of the Left -- to throw their support behind him in Wednesday's ballot.

At least one party in Berlusconi's coalition, the Union of Christian Democrats, said on Tuesday it disagreed with his veto of the quiet-spoken, elder statesman, indicating they could break ranks and vote for him.

The stakes are also high for Berlusconi, who needs to show he can hold his own bloc together now it is in opposition. A high vote for Napolitano would indicate defections in the centre right in protest against Berlusconi's leadership.

Tuesday's two rounds of voting by more than 1000 lawmakers and regional delegates, after an inconclusive ballot on Monday, yielded a majority of blank ballots as frantic negotiations continued behind the scenes.

Prodi had been keen to seek a compromise with the centre right and avoid a showdown which would make it harder for him to push through his policies in the future.

But he also needs to affirm his leadership as the head of a broad coalition, ranging from moderate Roman Catholics to hardline communists, and not be seen as vulnerable to centre-right pressure.

Napolitano was put forward only after Berlusconi ruled out backing the higher-profile but divisive Massimo D'Alema, chairman of the Democrats of the Left. Both are former members of the Communist Party.

- REUTERS