The PDL was pressing for the inclusion of Gianni Letta, Berlusconi's political fixer. But this appeared less likely after centre-left parties objected.
Opposition MPs said the end of Berlusconi's controversial 17-year political career marked a "new dawn".
The Adnkronos news agency reported that Berlusconi had offered Monti the support of all his PDL MPs, in exchange for guarantees on justice legislation - the clear implication being that Berlusconi was hoping for pledges on criminal law that might help him escape convictions in his ongoing trials. Monti refused the offer, the report said. Berlusconi is due in court on November 21 in a bribery case. There was even a suggestion Berlusconi may try and resurrect his political career. In a message to a meeting of a minor right-wing party, the former Prime Minister said: "I share your spirit and I hope to resume with you the path of government."
The new leader was appointed despite the opposition of the PDL's former coalition ally, the right-wing Northern League. Umberto Bossi, a long-time ally of Berlusconi, said his party won't yet back any Monti-led government.
Monti has respect both of the left and the right.
While his lack of political strings has gained him widespread trust, it could also work against him as the head of a government of technocrats.
"There is concern being voiced here in some quarters about whether it is a good move to install a government which is not anchored in partisan politics in Italy. You need politics in Italy," said Paris-based Thomas Klau of the European Council of Foreign Relations. "Leaving that objection aside, I think there is no other figure currently in Italy enjoying so much cross-border respect as Mario Monti."
Monti has indicated his strategy for governing a politically divided Italy in editorials on the crisis he has written for Corriere, said Francesco Giavazzi, an economics professor at Bocconi. Recognising that structural reforms will be unpopular in vast segments of the population, Monti plans to spread the pain: balance reforms harmful to voters on the left with those harmful to voters on the right.
MARIO MONTI
Job: He has been made a senator and Prime Minister. He is charged with restoring Italy's position in Europe and will have to push painful structural reforms through.
Age: 68
Nickname: "Super Mario" for his role at the European Commission.
Background: Born in Varese, north of Milan, the son of a bank manager. Earned an economics and management degree at Bocconi University and later studied at Yale. Taught economics at several Italian universities.
Experience: He spent 10 years at the EC, about half in the powerful post of competition commissioner, where he blocked the merger of General Electric and Honeywell and levied a €497 million ($869 million) fine against Microsoft for abusing its dominant position. Now the president of Bocconi, he is one of the founders of the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank.
He says: "I have always been considered to be the most German among Italian economists, which I always received as a compliment, but which was rarely meant to be a compliment."
They say: "He moves with caution and speaks with nuances. But he moves," said Carlo Guarnieri, a political scientist at the University of Bologna.
- INDEPENDENT, AP
