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Italy's lawmakers again failed to elect a new head of state Tuesday as the center-right opposition refused to back the incoming government's preferred candidate, a former Communist.

No candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in a fresh vote Tuesday and outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said there currently was "no room for agreement" with the center left.

Barring any last-minute deal, the third ballot at night local time was also almost certain to be inconclusive.

The developments meant Romano Prodi's center left would have to decide whether to push its candidate through, starting with today's fourth ballot when the majority needed to elect is drastically reduced or continue to seek a compromise.

The parliamentary election for Italy's 11th post-war head of state is the first major test for Prodi since he narrowly won last month's general election. It has painfully underscored the difficulty he will have in pushing through his policy agenda with a wafer-thin parliamentary 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 cannot take office until the new president gives him a mandate.

The center left wants the post to be given to Giorgio Napolitano, an 80-year-old senator-for-life of the Democrats of the Left, Italy's former Communist party.

The two-third majority needed to elect the president in the first three ballots means a successful vote is impossible unless the two blocs agree on a compromise candidate.

Prodi's bloc must now decide whether to push ahead with its candidate from the fourth round of voting today, when a simple majority of 505 votes will be enough.

(China Daily May 10, 2006)