Contested Ballots Deal New Blow to Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi's hopes of overturning the Italian election result were dealt a blow as it emerged the number of contested ballot papers was far lower than originally thought.

The interior ministry said the votes being recounted were 2,131 for the lower chamber and 3,135 for the senate - dramatically below the previous announcement of 43,028 and 39,822 contested votes, and not enough to reverse Romano Prodi's win.

Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition won a majority in both houses but Mr Berlusconi, the incumbent centre-right prime minister, refused to accept its 25,000 margin in the lower chamber.

"It seems that we have won the election," said a spokesman for Mr Prodi, who first declared his victory to a crowd of cheering supporters in the early hours of Tuesday. "Two thousand [ballots] can't change the result."

Mr Berlusconi's press office did not comment on the interior ministry statement, noting merely that all election data were "preliminary" until official confirmation by the court of cassation, which is not expected until next week at the earliest.

The interior ministry said its error in counting up the contested ballots was due to a "material error" that had led officials in some provinces to put the contested ballots in with ballots that had been annulled.

As is routine after an election, judges examined ballots for the lower chamber and the senate that were not immediately included in the overall official count because there were problems with them, but none so severe that they would be automatically discounted.

"Obviously this remains temporary data, as we await definite and formal decisions of ... regional electoral offices," the ministry said in a statement.

Before the revised figures were announced, Mr Prodi told Italian news agencies that the checks on the contested ballots were not "leading to any change".

His office yesterday revealed that foreign leaders, including EU partners Tony Blair and Angela Merkel of Germany had telephoned with their congratulations. Mr Blair and Mr Prodi were said to have held "a long, friendly and cordial conversation".

Jacques Chirac of France was the first EU leader to congratulate Mr Prodi on the election win.

Mr Berlusconi is still refusing to concede. Members of Mr Prodi's coalition today asked him to stop challenging the election results.

"I want to invite the premier to lower his tone and stop what appears to be a real strategy of tension, an undermining of the electoral victory that increases the bitterness," Massimo D'Alema, leader of the Democrats of the Left, said in a interview published the Corriere della Sera.

A new government is unlikely to be formed until mid-May regardless of whether Mr Berlusconi concedes. Once the results have been approved by the court of cassation, Italy's highest court, it will then be up to the Italian president to invite a prime minister to take office.

Italy's current president, the 85-year-old Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, stands down next month and said he would leave it up to his successor to make the decision. The Italian parliament has until May 13 to elect a new president.