Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition won six regions including two extremely close contests in just-ended polls, the interior ministry said yesterday.

The uneasy coalition of Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party and the anti-immigration Northern League wrested four regions from the centre-left including Rome's Lazio region while holding on to two others.

Right-wing union leader Renata Polverini and her centre-left opponent Emma Bonino ran neck-and-neck in Lazio before Mr Polverini pulled decisively ahead late in tallying, winning by 51.1 to 48.3 per cent, official results showed.

The other squeaker was in northern Piedmont, where the Northern League's Roberto Cota ousted the incumbent Mercedes Bresso by 47.3 to 46.9 per cent.

The coalition also won by large margins to take control of two poor southern regions formerly headed by the centre-left, Calabria and in Naples' Campania region.

Thanks to a strong showing by the Northern League, Mr Berlusconi's coalition also retained control of its strongholds in the north, Milan's Lombardy region and Venice's Veneto region.

According to projections published late on Monday, the Northern League won 12.7 per cent of the vote, while Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party took 26.7 per cent, down nearly six points from the previous regional elections in 2005.

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