Italian prime minister Prodi resigns
Embattled Italian prime minister Romano Prodi has tonight arrived at the presidential Palace to hand in his resignation, after losing a confidence vote.
The result obliges him to resign and end his 20-month government. He has been asked to stay on in a caretaker prime minister role.
The centre-left government fell four votes short of the 160 needed for victory. The vote went against the government by 161 votes to 156 with 318 voting and one abstention.
Early elections or asking a politician to try to form another government are among president Giorgio Napolitano's options as head of state.
In a final appeal for support to senators before the vote, Mr Prodi contended that his insistence of having the risky vote was "not a gesture of stubbornness but of being consistent".
Some of his allies who urged him to go ahead with the vote said that Italians should know which politicians contributed to the government's downfall.
Conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, who lost his bid to retain the premiership in the 2006 elections, was quoted as pushing for elections soon and saying he was already preparing his campaign programme.
Mr Prodi's government had been shaky almost from the start after his election in April 2006, but it lurched toward its collapse after a small Christian Democrat party, whose votes were vital to a coalition majority in the Senate, pulled its support earlier this week in the latest squabbling among his allies.
