Berlusconi scorched by regional election defeat

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a stinging defeat at Italian regional elections, early vote counts indicated yesterday, a huge boost for centre-left leader Romano Prodi who aims to unseat him next year.

Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition appeared to have lost at least nine of the 13 regions at stake, only sure of maintaining Lombardy and Veneto - both in its stronghold in northern Italy.

Mr Prodi, who had said he would be satisfied by winning just one new seat, was delighted by what appeared to be a landslide.

"Today we have easily won in terms of the number of votes and the number of regions," he told a news conference. "With this vote Italians are asking us to prepare to govern to take the country forward."

The centre-left won up to six of the contested regions previously held by government parties, giving it control of 13-15 of Italy's 20 regions.

Mr Berlusconi had prepared his supporters for a poor result, saying he expected a mid-term backlash due to Italy's economic woes. But the outcome looks far worse than expected.

The tycoon-turned-politician has said he is more interested in the total number of votes cast rather than seats won or lost, a figure that will not be available until the count is finished.

"At a regional level the centre-left has prevailed, but the national battle is still to be played out," said Fabrizio Cicchitto, a spokesman for Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

The death of Pope John Paul on Saturday overshadowed the election but did not keep voters away. Turnout reached 71.4 per cent, down just 1.7 percentage points from the last one.

"Berlusconi should draw the right conclusions and not prolong the agony for another year," said opposition member of parliament Antonio di Pietro in a call for the prime minister to resign.

A defeat in regional elections in 2000 prompted the then prime minister, the centre-left's Massimo D'Alema, to resign - ultimately making way for Mr Berlusconi's rise.

Mr Berlusconi rejected that idea even before the polls opened, saying he was determined to see out his five-year mandate as the longest-serving premier in post-war Italian history.

The centre-right appeared to have lost three regions seen as crucial by parties and pundits: Piedmont in the north, Lazio in the centre and Puglia in the south, exit polls said. But early official figures showed the results in Lazio and Puglia were on a knife edge. The centre-right president of the Rome region Lazio, Francesco Storace said if he lost, Mr Berlusconi was doomed.

"If we lose in Lazio the successor to (Mr) Berlusconi can only be (Mr) Prodi," he said ahead of the vote.

If Mr Storace loses, he may contest the legality of the Lazio election as he believes Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, forged the signatures needed to allow her to stand.

Ms Mussolini, head of her own extreme-right party, may have handed victory to the centre-left in Lazio by drawing votes away from Mr Storace, a member of the National Alliance which over the last decade has broken its historic links with fascism.

A fourteenth region, Basilicata, which is held by the centre-left, will vote on April 17-18.