Italian Premier Romano Prodi went before the Lower House on Tuesday to ask that it reconfirms its confidence in his government following the decision by ex-justice minister Clemente Mastella to withdraw the support of his Udeur party.

The premier's address opened a floor debate which will conclude with a confidence vote on Wednesday, after which Prodi will face the almost impossible task of winning a confidence test in the Senate.
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This because without the Udeur's three senators Prodi no longer holds a majority there.

In his 15-minute address to the Lower House, Prodi "proudly" defended his government's record over the past 20 months and said "this government has brought benefits to the nation and I am convinced that it will be able to do so in the future."

The government, Prodi observed, "was the result of a pact for the legislature based on a common five-year program which has already put Italy back on its feet."

Following Prodi's address, the Udeur confirmed that it will vote against the government both in the Lower House and Senate, while opposition leaders called for Prodi's immediate resignation.

Former premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was absent from the floor, summed up the opposition's position by defining the confidence votes as "a useless formality because the situation is clear."

The Forza Italia leader and probable center right candidate for premier said he expected to reply to Prodi in the Lower House on Wednesday, before the confidence vote.

Mastella said on Monday that he had decided to bring the government down because of differences on a number of issues including electoral reform, the proposed referendum on the current electoral law and relations with the new Democratic Party, which was created through the fusion of the Democratic Left and centrist Daisy parties.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2008)