Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-right allies hammered out the details of a contested tax cut plan over the weekend that the prime minister wants agreed before he announces a cabinet reshuffle. Berlusconi has to name his fourth foreign minister in three years after dispatching incumbent Franco Frattini to Brussels, but he has made it clear no announcements will be made until his four-party coalition agrees on tax cuts.
Berlusconi wants to wring concessions out of his sometimes fractious allies before doling out prized positions in a government reshuffle.
Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli said the finishing touches were being applied to a tax plan after months of squabbling over how the cuts should be shared out.
"The definitive tax cut proposal will be ready on Monday so that we can present it to the coalition summit on Tuesday," he told ANSA news agency.
The tax cutting package, a key part of Berlusconi's election manifesto in the 2001 general election, has been repeatedly promised and put off since early summer.
Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini is widely expected to be named foreign minister after Frattini was named as Italy's new candidate for the European Commission.
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