Prodi vows to reunite Italy after polls win

Pressing ahead with plans to form Italy's first centre-left government in five years, Prodi said his leftist coalition's victory was "clear" and played down fears the knife-edge result could make the nation ungovernable.

But the country's political future has become mired in chaos and confusion after Berlusconi refused to concede defeat for his centre-right coalition.

He cited "many irregularities" in voting for the upper Senate and the tiny 25,000-vote margin in the lower house and has demanded a close check of 43,000 contested ballots before Italy's top court signs off on the result.

Prodi -- who was to have his first post-election news conference at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) Wednesday -- said in an interview with France's Europe 1 radio that "victory is now clear in both houses of parliament."

He said he was "certain" of becoming Italy's next prime minister.

The 66-year-old former president of the EU Commission dismissed the idea of a German-style "grand coalition" of left and right, as suggested by Berlusconi in the event that the recount resulted in a split parliament.

"This is not something specific to Italy. Germany is cut in two, France is cut in two," he said.

"So long as there is growth and clear ideas, we will reunite the country."

Prodi also recalled the narrow margin that separated US President George W. Bush from Democrat rival Al Gore in the 2000 election in the United States.

His first priority will be to kick-start a stagnant economy and convince international financial markets that, despite governing a disparate coalition, which ranges from moderate Catholics to Communists, he can provide a stable government.

But James Newell, an Italian politics specialist at Salford University in England, said the razor-thin margin of victory would leave a Prodi government with "little legitimacy."

"They will be exposed to constant attack by the opposition who can claim the support of half the country," he said.

Prodi said Berlusconi had "no chance" of succeeding President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose mandate ends in May.

He also said he hoped for a "strong alliance with France" and for President Jacques Chirac to give a "new impulse" to European integration during the last year of his mandate, despite last year's rejection by French voters of the EU constitution.

Asked about the crisis sparked by the French government's contested youth contract, he said Italy faced "the same problem of a fear of precariousness."

The country's top daily Corriere della Sera issued a stern call for unity, saying that division over the result "seems to have cast a dark cloud over the future of the country."