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Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said his
center-left challenger Romano Prodi was irresponsible in claiming victory
in the Italian elections before a full count of the
votes.
Prodi said he had won the poll earlier Tuesday before final figures
were in for the upper house, and announced his coalition could govern for
five years.
"Our government will be politically and technically strong and it will
be the government of all Italians," Prodi said. He added that his
government would also be for Italians who did not vote for his coalition.
The former European Commission president also said his government would
put Europe at the center of its policies.
Prodi, who strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said he supports
what he called "constructive relations with the United States." Prime
Minister Berlusconi has been a strong supporter of the Iraq war and,
following the ouster of Saddam Hussein, sent 3,000 troops to Iraq.
Prodi said, after a divisive campaign, it was time for Italians to come
together.
"Today we turn a page," Prodi said. "We leave behind the sourness of a
long and difficult electoral campaign. We need to start immediately to
repair the tears that were produced in the country."
On Tuesday evening, the Interior Ministry showed
Prodi's center-left bloc
winning a majority in both houses of parliament. But Mr. Berlusconi
refused to concede defeat.
He said there are many irregularities in the vote count from Italians
living abroad, which need checking.
"We do not think that anybody today can claim victory with figures
which are still very, very obscure," Berlusconi said. "He said he will
recognize the political victory of the opposing coalition once the needed
legal checks have been made.
Mr. Berlusconi suggested that Italy could follow Germany's example and
create a grand coalition of left and right if final results show neither
side is in control of both houses of parliament. But Prodi dismissed the
suggestion that he needed help from the center-right to govern and called
Berlusconi's refusal to concede "out of line." | 
