Prodi Wins Senate Confidence Vote

Romano Prodi tonight pulled his centre-left government through the gravest emergency of its nine months in office, winning a vote of confidence in the senate by just two votes.

To survive, the Italian prime minister needed an outright majority of 160 votes in the upper house of parliament. He won 162, with 157 senators voting for Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing opposition.

Mr Prodi's victory, which put an end to seven days of feverish uncertainty, was made possible only by the defection of two conservative senators.

They included Marco Follini, a Christian Democrat and former deputy prime minister under Mr Berlusconi, who was loudly booed by his erstwhile colleagues when his vote was declared.

Mr Berlusconi accused him of "distorting the outcome" of last April's general election.

The government also benefited from a last-minute decision by the 88-year-old life senator Giulio Andreotti. The former prime minister, whose abstention in a vote on foreign policy helped provoke the crisis, announced he would not take part in the ballot, thereby reducing the required tally of votes.

Mr Prodi said afterwards he was "very satisfied" with the result.

One of his ministers, Clemente Mastella, said the government was "like the Tower of Pisa - it leans but it doesn't fall".

Other politicians expressed doubts about its long-term prospects. Daniele Capezzone, who was elected for the centre-left, said: "The precariousness of the government remains evident."

Mr Prodi's coalition, now expanded to 10 parties, has still to confront parliamentary votes on a string of divisive issues. In March alone it faces possible rebellions on the left, over the re-financing of its Nato contingent in Afghanistan, and on the right, over the extension of legal rights to unmarried couples.

A poll for the daily Corriere della Sera found almost 40% of Italians thought the government would last no more than a few months. The poll also indicated that only four in 10 of those questioned wanted Mr Prodi to survive the crisis. His government's 2007 budget, which included stiff tax increases, was widely resented.

Tonight's vote was held against a background of rumoured conspiracy and alleged vote-buying. Mr Berlusconi claimed the existence of a "supermarket" offering senators for sale.

So close was the expected outcome, that one member of the upper house, who had been taken to hospital with gallstones, turned up in parliament accompanied by a doctor.

Sounding exhausted after seven days of frantic negotiation, Mr Prodi made a final appeal for support. He said the economy was offering "signs of hope and room for optimism", but begged for time to give Italy a "strong, decisive economic policy".

The former EU commission president tendered his resignation last week following his defeat in the senate. After consulting party leaders and others, president Giorgio Napolitano sent Mr Prodi back to test the true level of his support in both chambers.

The centre-left has a clear edge in the lower house, but it hangs by a thread in the senate. A defeat for Mr Prodi would most likely have led to an unaligned government with a mandate to reform the electoral law that was introduced by the right.