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Italian leaders promise

end to turmoil

ROME: The leading candidates in Italy's general election wound up a long and bruising campaign by promising to end the country's four-year political turmoil.

Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi and economist Romano Prodi, both aiming to lead Italy's 55th post-war government, made their final pitch in a televised debate on Friday night.

Both Berlusconi, who heads a centre-right coalition, and his centre-left rival Prodi were careful not to make any last-minute blunders that could tilt the outcome of Sunday's election.

Their debate was the last major event in a six-week election campaign before an official "pause for reflection" on Saturday to allow voters time to gather their thoughts.

Political analysts believe many of the country's 48 million voters will not make up their minds until the last moment before they cast their ballot papers.

"There are people who are prepared to change their minds if they hear somebody who is more convincing even at the last moment. Maybe even when they are out to dinner on Saturday night," said Renato Mannheimer, a leading opinion pollster.

Opinion polls put the rival blocs neck-and-neck before their publication was banned on April 1, though Prodi's Olive Tree has claimed it gained ground in the last week.

Berlusconi said a centre-left government could not be trusted because to stay in office it would have to rely on the support of the Marxist Communist Refoundation party which could pull the rug at any time from under its feet.

"The Berlin Wall may have fallen but the men who call themselves post-communists are still the same despite a face-lift," said Berlusconi.

Berlusconi, whose seven-month stint as prime minister in 1994 came to an abrupt end when a coalition partner -- the federalist Northern League -- withdrew support, said history could repeat itself with a centre-left administration.

"I fear the country could be in store for a situation similar to what I had to go through with the League," he said.

Prodi attacked Berlusconi's record in office, saying the media tycoon had failed entirely to deliver on a promise to enact free-market reforms. "When he was in government he did not privatise anything," Prodi said.

The soft-spoken economics professor also pointed to the long-standing conflict of interest between Berlusconi's huge media empire and his political ambitions.

"This election campaign is dominated by his means of information," Prodi said.

"I have seven brothers and not even one newspaper -- he has one brother who owns 14 publications," he said, in a reference to Berlusconi's brother and close business associate, Paolo.

The Olive Tree, which is dominated by the ex-communist Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), has played on the fascist roots of Berlusconi's far right ally Gianfranco Fini to scare moderate voters.

The National Alliance led by the bespectacled 44-year-old Fini is widely expected to enjoy a surge in support on Sunday.

But PDS leader Massimo D'Alema was not so sure. "This time I have the feeling that Italy is not going to be taken in," he said.-Reuter