Italy faced protracted political limbo on Wednesday as Romano Prodi said he may not be able to form a new government before mid-May and a dispute over alleged irregularities in this week's election added to the confusion.
Prodi has claimed a wafer-thin victory for his centre-left bloc in the April 9-10 poll but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refused to concede defeat and demanded checks on disputed ballots, saying there were "many murky aspects" to the vote.
The election was the closest in Italy's post-war history, with the centre-left winning in the lower house by a margin of just 25,000 votes out of 38.1 million cast.
The tight result has left many Italians wondering how long the next government will last and financial markets fretting that Prodi will not have a strong enough majority to push through unpopular reforms needed to revive a flagging economy.
Prodi insisted on Wednesday that his victory was clear-cut and said he did not fear a review of the disputed ballots. "I don't have any fear whatsoever that the result will be overturned. It is a clean victory," he told reporters.
He said earlier he would probably have to wait until a new Italian president was appointed by parliament next month before he could form a government.
Under the constitution, it is up to the head of state to nominate a new government after consultation with party leaders.
Prodi had wanted President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to name him prime minister but Ciampi, whose term ends on May 18, indicated again on Wednesday that he wanted his successor to do this.
Ciampi's office said the lengthy timeframe for the appointment of a new government was a "constitutional obligation". The new parliament is due to convene on April 28. The Senate, lower house and regional representatives will then vote on May 12-13 to elect a successor to Ciampi.
Prodi and his allies, who stretch from Roman Catholic centrists to communists, held talks on Wednesday after they flatly rejected Berlusconi's proposal to consider a German-style grand coalition in which the left and right would share power.
On Tuesday, Berlusconi said some 40,000 disputed ballots had to be checked before either side could claim victory.
Such checks are routinely carried out by local authorities after an election and were expected to be completed by Friday.
Most commentators said the review was unlikely to alter the result and centre-right leaders kept a low profile on Wednesday, with some ministers appearing to have accepted Prodi's win.
However, it was unclear whether Berlusconi's camp would be satisfied with a simple review of the disputed ballots or planned a further legal challenge.
Possibly giving the centre-right fresh ammunition to question the results, boxes containing valid filled in ballot sheets were found near a rubbish bin in Rome.
Italy's electoral system, which gives a premium of extra seats to the winning coalition, means Prodi's side has 348 seats in the lower house, compared with 281 for Berlusconi's bloc.
His majority in the upper house, where seats are allocated differently, is just 158 against 156 for the centre-right.
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