Romano Prodi

President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro formally asked former Communist Massimo D'Alema to form Italy's 56th government since World War II. The request came after D'Alema said he had assembled a parliamentary majority in days of hard bargaining with centrist and leftist parties. The Vatican's newspaper was sharply critical of Scalfaro for tapping a former Communist as Italy's next premier, succeeding Romano Prodi.

Eager to win back the confidence of financial markets, Italy's president on Sunday appointed economist Mario Monti to lead the country's new government. The move came almost 24 hours after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi submitted his resignation amid widespread celebration on the streets of Rome. President Giorgio Napolitano's announcement sets the stage for Monti, a former European Union commissioner, to form a new technocratic government that will try to navigate Italy out of the debt crisis with austerity measures sought by the European Union.

Romano Prodi regained his job as prime minister after Communist hard-liners agreed to measures that will keep the country on course for a single European currency. Details of the deal were not immediately available, but Fausto Bertinotti's Communist Refoundation Party was expected to approve a deficit-slashing 1998 budget plan in exchange for concessions such as a 35-hour workweek.

Twenty months after it came to power, the Italian government fell late Thursday when Prime Minister Romano Prodi lost a vote of confidence in Parliament and was forced to resign. The demise of Prodi's center-left coalition caps weeks of bitter political fighting but sends Italy into a new period of uncertainty while either an interim government is installed or fresh elections are called. Prodi had spent much of his time in office simply trying to survive politically.

A confident Romano Prodi insisted that his center-left coalition's Italian election victory was on solid ground, even as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the vote fraudulent and demanded a recount. But Berlusconi later appeared to back away from his allegation of fraud, releasing a statement late in the evening in which he said the very thin margin of victory "requires a scrupulous check to ascertain any possible error or irregularity."

Five days after Italy's Communists brought down the government, Romano Prodi regained his job as prime minister Tuesday after the hard-liners made peace to keep the country on course for a single European currency. President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro formally reinstalled Prodi as prime minister and told him to inform Parliament that his government again had a majority. It was not clear whether Prodi would ask for a vote of confidence, but with Communist support he had the votes to win it.

A small Communist party whose leader reveres Cuban President Fidel Castro and courted Mexican guerrillas on Thursday brought down Italy's 55th postwar government. Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned after his allies in the Communist Refoundation Party refused to tolerate welfare cuts the government says are vital for Italy's entry into the common European currency.

During his history-making and eyebrow-raising visit here this week, Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi called Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, "my brother." But the bespectacled Italian professor who brought Kadafi to the capital of Europe couldn't be less like the Libyan dictator.

European Union leaders Wednesday nominated former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to preside over the scandal-plagued European Commission, tackling the only quickly resolvable task at a summit riven by financial disputes and overshadowed by NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.

The quarrelsome allies of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi rallied to his side late Wednesday, voting to restore him to office but laying bare ongoing challenges likely to undermine the new government. The ballot in the Senate, coming at the end of a day of debate and cajoling, ended -- for now -- a government crisis triggered when Prodi abruptly stepped down last week.

The quarrelsome allies of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi rallied to his side late Wednesday, voting to restore him to office but laying bare ongoing challenges likely to undermine the new government. The ballot in the Senate, coming at the end of a day of debate and cajoling, ended -- for now -- a government crisis triggered when Prodi abruptly stepped down last week.

Stung by a bruising foreign policy defeat, beleaguered Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned Wednesday, his center-left government collapsing after just nine months in power. Prodi failed to win parliamentary endorsement of his decision to maintain Italian troops in Afghanistan, a loss attributed in part to desertions by members of his coalition who oppose continued cooperation with the U.S. military in Italy and abroad. Chants of "Quit! Quit!"

One by one, the doors were shutting Wednesday on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's campaign to resist defeat in national elections. Italy's highest court, ruling on a partial recount of ballots cast 10 days ago, confirmed that the center-left coalition led by economist Romano Prodi defeated Berlusconi's conservative alliance by a tiny margin. "The election is finally over," Prodi said during a news conference at his headquarters in Rome's historic center.

A confident Romano Prodi insisted that his center-left coalition's Italian election victory was on solid ground, even as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the vote fraudulent and demanded a recount. But Berlusconi later appeared to back away from his allegation of fraud, releasing a statement late in the evening in which he said the very thin margin of victory "requires a scrupulous check to ascertain any possible error or irregularity."

Italian politician Romano Prodi claimed victory early today over his bitter rival Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in hard-fought elections that cemented deep divisions in this economically beleaguered nation. Berlusconi supporters immediately labeled Prodi's proclamation premature. It came even though Berlusconi's coalition was leading in one of the two races to control Parliament.

During his history-making and eyebrow-raising visit here this week, Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi called Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, "my brother." But the bespectacled Italian professor who brought Kadafi to the capital of Europe couldn't be less like the Libyan dictator.

In Europe's march toward a common currency, no leader has coaxed more sacrifices from his people or closed a wider gap in his country's budget than Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi--and at little cost to his popularity. But now, one step from bringing Italy into the elite club that will launch the new currency, Prodi is stumbling. His coalition has been thrown into turmoil by a Communist ally who calls himself one of the last defenders of the European welfare state.

European Union leaders Wednesday nominated former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to preside over the scandal-plagued European Commission, tackling the only quickly resolvable task at a summit riven by financial disputes and overshadowed by NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.