Countdown to Ruggiero's resignation

Mr Ruggiero felt his colleagues had "belittled"the euro

		By David Willey in Rome

Renato Ruggiero, Italy's strongly pro-Europe foreign minister, resigned 48 hours after giving an interview to Italy's leading newspaper criticising ministers in Silvio Berlusconi's coalition for their lukewarm, or even hostile reaction to the arrival of the euro.

One Italian minister has said he 'couldn't care a hoot' about the new currency

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reacted by trying to paper over divisions in his six-month-old government, and insisting that he was in charge of Italian foreign policy while Mr Ruggiero was a mere technician.

Mr Ruggiero, an experienced Italian diplomat and former head of the World Trade Organisation took this badly, and told a radio station in Milan earlier in the day that he was nobody's stooge.

A statement on Saturday night from the Prime Minister's office said that Mr Berlusconi had accepted Mr Ruggiero's resignation.

Bumpy ride

The Italian media is calling the break "divorce by mutual consent".

Mr Ruggiero had often disagreed with the cabinet on foreign policy issues

Coming the very week that Italy has adopted the new single European currency, it puts the Berlusconi administration in a difficult position with its European partners.

Italy was the only EU country not to organise celebrations for the arrival of the euro at the new year.

One Italian minister has said he "couldn't care a hoot" about the new currency, and others have cast doubts about further European integration.

Mr Ruggiero has had a bumpy ride as Mr Berlusconi's foreign minister, having had to explain away to Arab countries some tactless remarks made by the Italian Prime Minister last year about the superiority of Christian to Islamic culture.

He is clearly relieved to be leaving the centre-right government.