ROME: Italy's centre-left leader Romano Prodi said yesterday his victory at Italy's general election this week was secure despite demands by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for ballot checks.

"I don't have any fear whatsoever that the result will be overturned. It is a clean victory," Prodi told foreign reporters.

The closest election in Italy's post-war history saw Prodi win a wafer-thin two-seat majority in the upper house Senate and prevail in the lower house by just 25,000 votes out of 38.1 million cast.

Berlusconi, however, has said he will only concede defeat after disputed ballots have been checked, a position that Prodi mocked.

"It's a curious situation that Berlusconi protests when he has in his hands all the control, all the transmission of the data, all the technical apparatus," Prodi said. "It means he doesn't trust himself, it's a kind of identity crisis."

In a news conference at Italy's foreign press association, Prodi, who has already been congratulated on his victory by several European leaders, was keen to present himself as prime minister-in-waiting.

He told foreign journalists that once in power he would "very quickly" put his election programme into action by cutting labour taxes, changing current laws on immigration and conflict of interest and realigning Italian foreign policy more closely with Europe.

Prodi said he would probably have to wait until a new Italian president is elected next month before he could form a government.

Under the constitution the head of state gives the winner of the election the mandate to form a government. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose term ends on May 18, has indicated that he wants his successor to name the new prime minister.

"So we would have to wait until the second half of May," Prodi told France's Europe 1 radio yesterday.

Chirac sends congratulations

French President Jacques Chirac called Prodi yesterday to hail his claimed victory.

Chirac, whose relations with Berlusconi were notoriously poor, invited Prodi to come to Paris as soon as he could and told the centre-leftist he was sure that Franco-Italian ties could be deepened, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

The message of congratulations was sent as other key European countries such as Britain and Germany held back from acknowledging Prodi as the victor.

Prodi has since the April 9-10 poll blitzed the French media with television and radio interviews calling for new efforts to push ahead with European integration, stalled since French and Dutch voters last year rejected a proposed EU constitution.

Source: China Daily