The upper house of the Italian parliament, the Senate, has comfortably passed a vote of confidence in the new centre-left coalition led by Massimo D'Alema.

It won a majority of more than seventy and becomes Italy's fifty-sixth post-war government.

The coalition includes moderate communists and centre-right Roman Catholics but no longer depends on the votes of the far-left Communist Refoundation Party that brought down the previous centre-left government of Romano Prodi.

Mr D'Alema said he would continue with Mr Prodi's controversial budget to ensure Italy became a stable member of the single European currency.