Profile: Romano Prodi, Italian prime minister

At the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is going to pay an official visit to China from Sept. 13 to 18.

Prodi was educated at the Chatholic University of Milan and graduated in 1961. He is a trained economist and served as Italy's minister for industry from 1978-79. He also was a professor of economics at the University of Bologna, a visiting professor at Harvard, and a researcher at the London School of Economics.

An expert on European industrial policy, he twice served as chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), Italy's state holding company, from 1982-89 and 1993-94.

Prodi reentered politics in 1994 as leader of the Olive Tree Alliance, a center-left coalition that was victorious in the April 1996 general elections. As premier, Prodi formed the first left-leaning Italian government since the World War II. He made Italy's joining the single European currency a prime goal and won passage for budgets that significantly reduced the government deficit.

From 1999 to 2004, Prodi was president of the European Commission. In 2005 he won a center-left primary to lead the opposition coalition challenge against Premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2006. The center-left subsequently won control of parliament by a narrow margin, and Prodi was elected prime minister.

Source: Xinhua