Berlusconi lawmakers pull out of Italy coalition

Rome (AFP) - Silvio Berlusconi withdrew his support for Italy's ruling coalition on Tuesday in a widely expected move on the eve of a vote to expel the billionaire tycoon from the Senate.

"The conditions for continuing our cooperation with this government no longer exist," said Paolo Romani, chief senator for Berlusconi's newly-revamped Forza Italia (Go Italy) party, calling on Letta to step down.

Letta "should draw his conclusions", Romani said.

"The grand coalition has finished today. One chapter is closing and another is beginning," he said.

The move will not bring down Italy's left-right government since a group of former Berlusconi loyalists that broke away from the scandal-tainted ex-premier to form their own party have said they will stay in the coalition.

The New Centre-Right group led by a former Berlusconi protege, Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano, vowed to support centre-left Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition even if Berlusconi is expelled.

But Letta's government will now have a much slimmer Senate majority of around 10 senators, while it will continue to enjoy strong support in the lower house because of the presence of many centre-left lawmakers.

Alfano's party accounts for about 50 parliamentarians but the precise numbers will become clearer in a key vote on next year's draft budget later on Tuesday.

The budget aims to cut Italy's public debt and deficit as the economy tries to break free of a debilitating recession -- its longest since World War II.

Forza Italia has said the budget is too tax-heavy but the centre-left Democratic Party said Berlusconi's supporters were using the budget as "an excuse to request impunity for Silvio Berlusconi".

The government was formed six months ago following a two-month stalemate that ensued after a general election that was only very narrowly won by the Democratic Party with Berlusconi coming a close second.

"I am working incessantly to have a non-chaotic situation in Italy," Letta said on the sidelines of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"What has happened in the centre-right will help stability in Italy, I am sure of it," he said.

Berlusconi faces being forced out of parliament for the first time in a 20-year-long political career but he is expected to continue wielding influence even from outside parliament, although far less than before.

Berlusconi on Monday pleaded with fellow senators to delay their vote for the sake of the country, claiming he had new evidence which warranted a judicial review of the tax fraud case for which he is being expelled.

His supporters are organising a rally outside his Rome residence on Wednesday at which thousands are expected, while anti-Berlusconi activists are planning a smaller protest near the Senate.

Berlusconi's lawyers meanwhile played down the risk of the three-time former prime minister's arrest once his parliamentary immunity is withdrawn -- a source of constant rumours in the Italian press.

"We think a hypothesis of this type as beyond provocation, an absurd hypothesis," Franco Coppi told reporters in Rome.

"In theory a prosecutor could ask for this measure but given Berlusconi's current situation we consider this idea absolutely unrealistic."

But Berlusconi himself told an interviewer on Tuesday that prosecutors in Naples and Milan were "competing to see who gets me first".

Italy's supreme court earlier this year issued a tax fraud ruling against Berlusconi -- his first definitive criminal conviction -- which means he also faces 12 months of community service as punishment.

His travel documents have been withdrawn following his conviction although he will not have to go to prison because at 77 he is considered too old to serve time.

He is still appealing convictions for having sex with an underage 17-year-old prostitute, for abusing the powers of the prime minister's office and for leaking a police wiretap in a bid to damage a political rival.

Berlusconi also faces a trial for bribing a left-wing senator to join his party and could be investigated for paying off young women who attended raunchy parties at his villa in return for favourable testimony.

He has denied all charges and regularly claims that a politicised group of biased leftist prosecutors have been trying to sink his career ever since he entered the political fray in 1994.