Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister

ROME - Italy's longest running government since World War Two ended with a whimper yesterday evening when prime minister Silvio Berlusconi handed in his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the head of state.

It was a formal act required of him by the Italian Constitution after a minor member of his coalition, the centrist and Catholic UDC party, pulled out of the government last week.

That action was prompted by regional elections earlier this month in which Berlusconi's Forza Italia party was badly beaten.

With a general election due in May 2006 at the latest, the UDC, a rump of the once-dominant Christian Democratic party, was keen to put some clear blue water between itself and a prime minister many in Italy now believe to be doomed.

As the UDC has promised to continue to support Berlusconi's government from outside, President Ciampi was expected to ask the media billionaire to form a new government. But exactly when was not clear: the President might feel it his duty to have talks with all political forces before calling on Mr Berlusconi to resume.

Yesterday's mini-drama came three days after Berlusconi had been expected to resign.

On Monday he received a written promise from the UDC that it would loyally support him. The document was given on the assumption that Berlusconi would then formally throw in the towel. Instead he tried to brazen his way through the crisis.

On Wednesday, however, another coalition partner, the post-Fascist Alleanza Nazionale, said it would precipitate the government's fall if Berlusconi did not do the decent thing.

The man Italians call "Il Cavaliere" ("the Cavalier") had run out of options.

Speaking to the Senate yesterday hours before meeting the president, Mr Berlusconi said: "With your confidence and support we have written important pages in our country's history; with your confidence and your support I am sure we will write many more."

- INDEPENDENT