Italian premier resigns

Massimo D'Alema has confirmed his resignation

Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema has resigned following a meeting with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

"The resignation of Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema is definitive," a government statement said.

The prime minister had offered his resignation on Monday after defeat for his centre-left alliance in regional elections last Sunday.

It was rejected however by President Ciampi who asked him to seek a vote of confidence in parliament.

No such vote was held however after Mr D'Alema addressed the upper house of parliament - the Senate - on Wednesday morning.

In his 20-minute speech to the Senate Mr D'Alema never referred to a resignation, but condemned calls by the conservative opposition to hold early elections.

"It is not fair or imperative that an electoral defeat is followed by the dissolution of the chambers" of parliament, he said.

Strong government

He told the Senate that Italy needed a strong government until elections scheduled for next spring, and called for a referendum on changes to the electoral system to go ahead as planned on 21 May.

President Ciampi casts his vote in the poll that brought disappointing results for the coalition

He also said he remained "at the service of the country" and the centre-left political movement.

Mr D'Alema, the first former Communist to head an Italian government, has been in office for 18 months.

He took over from Romano Prodi, who left Italian politics to become president of the European Commission in Brussels.

President's choices

President Ciampi now has three possible choices.

He can either appoint a new leader of the existing left-wing coalition; he can put a new government of technocrats in charge of running the country until next year's general election or he can dissolve parliament and call new elections now.

Whatever he chooses, there is likely to be a pause for reflection over the long Easter weekend before final decisions are made.

But Italians are vividly aware of some urgent problems facing their country, including illegal immigration and inflation.

The latest boatload of 300 Kurdish refugees seeking new lives inside the EU has docked in a southern Italian port, and inflation is also rearing its ugly head again.

The latest figures show a 3% rise in a basket of basic retail prices.