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Centre-left claims

historic win in Italy

ROME: Italians handed a historic election victory on Monday to a centre-left coalition dominated by former communists and dealt a snub to media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Freedom Alliance.

Computer projections showed the centre-left Olive Tree bloc led by Romano Prodi could seize control of both houses of parliament, confounding forecasts that Italy's third general election in four years would end in a draw.

The far right National Alliance, led by Berlusconi's key ally Gianfranco Fini, failed to make as strong a showing as expected after a neo-fascist splinter group lured away many potential supporters in Italy's deep south.

"For the first time those who are going into government are those who have never governed," a jubilant Massimo D'Alema, leader of the Democratic Party of the left (PDS) told cheering supporters packed into in a Rome square.

The PDS, the driving force behind the Olive Tree coalition, is successor to the largest communist party in Western Europe which was frozen out of power after World War Two and only changed its name when the Cold War ended.

D'Alema said the time may now have come to scrap the hammer and sickle which still adorns the party's logo. "Now it will no longer make sense to have that emblem...after winning I think we can change it more serenely," he said.

Right-wing leaders predicted the Olive Tree would be hard- pressed to deliver stable government because it would have to rely on support in parliament from the hardcore Marxist party Communist Refoundation.

The PDS had struck an electoral alliance with Communist Refoundation for Sunday's election.

"We are very curious to see this very heterogenous coalition put to the test," said National Alliance politician Maurizio Gasparri. "Italy cannot get going again with this Russian salad."

The centre-left coalition ranges from the former communists to centrist politicians, among them caretaker prime minister Lamberto Dini who was elected to parliament for the first time on Monday at the head of a newly formed party.

Abacus institute projections showed the Olive Tree heading towards control of the Senate (upper house) with 150 to 164 of its 315 seats to 131 to 142 for the Freedom Alliance.

It gave 13 to 19 Senate seats to the federalist Northern League and four to other groups.

Actual returns from 90 percent of polling stations showed the Olive Tree had won 41.2 percent of the Senate, against 36.9 percent for the Freedom Alliance.

Abacus estimated the Olive Tree would win 306-340 seats in the 630-member Chamber of Deputies (lower house) against 272-301 for the Berlusconi bloc.

Results for the Chamber are expected on Monday night.

Another research group, CIRM, forecast 330 seats for the centre-left in the lower house to 272 for the centre-right. It gave 26 to the Northern League and two to others.

Whoever forms the next government, Italy's 55th since the War, must control both houses of parliament to be able to rule effectively.

Berlusconi, currently on trial in Milan on bribery charges, was bidding to return to the prime minister's office he occupied for seven stormy months in 1994.

His bloc's projected share of the vote was a clear defeat for the billionaire businessman, though his partners refused to concede until definitive results were available later on Monday.

It was not clear how many seats Communist Refoundation would hold. Party leader Fausto Bertinotti renewed a pledge to help give birth to a government led by Prodi, a mild-mannered former head of state industrial holding IRI, but made clear the centre-left would then be on its own.

Umberto Bossi, firebrand leader of the Northern league, made a strong showing, confounding pundits who had expected support for his federalist movement to wane.-Reuter