Europe on agenda for Italy poll

Rutelli on the campaign trail before Sunday's vote

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- A leading candidate for prime minister in Italy's general election is welcoming a German proposal to give more power to the European Union.

Centre left candidate Francesco Rutelli says Italy is in favour of the European Commission moving towards a government role, as put forward by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

He warned that his main rival Silvio Berlusconi's centre right would harm Italy's reputation as a key player in EU integration.

With Italians getting ready to elect their 59th government in 56 years , opinion polls say former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stands a good chance of reclaiming his old job.

The 64-year-old media magnate is capitalising on frustration with Italy's ruling centre-left government.

Berlusconi has labelled his opponent a "priest eater," an apparent reference to Rutelli's radical and anti-clerical past.

Rutelli responded by calling Berlusconi a "plastic shark who does not scare anyone." He says the broken promises from Berlusconi's first term in office are enough to fill an encyclopaedia.

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Rutelli, a former mayor of Rome, is running on a pro-European platform.

He told Reuters he had spoken to Schroeder and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and found their European proposals of great interest.

He said: "There is a good European feeling that could be damaged by the position of the Italian right.

"They are not in favour of fiscal harmonisation, they are not in favour of more democratic institutions in the sense of giving more powers to the Commission."

Berlusconi, who was prime minister for seven months in 1994, has indicated he is pro-European.

But he has formed an electoral pact with Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, who has been scathing about the EU during the election campaign.

Berlusconi has described the European Union as "the Soviet Union of the West" and accused it of robbing Italy of its sovereignty.

The European Commission is the EU's executive arm. Schroeder's radical EU plans unveiled last month focused on turning the Commission into a fully fledged government led by an elected Commission president and the establishment of a more powerful two-chamber parliament.

Rutelli also said the ruling centre left had made a mistake in not introducing a conflict of interest law during its five years in power.

The conflict of interests issue has dominated the election campaign and prompted close scrutiny by the international media, with the spotlight on billionaire media tycoon Berlusconi.

The question asked repeatedly is how Berlusconi would square his business interests, including nearly all of Italy's private TV stations, publishing and banking, with his duties as leader of Europe's fourth biggest economy.

Berlusconi has said he would introduce a conflicts bill in his first 100 days of government.

Ally Gianfranco Fini, leader of the right-wing National Alliance party, said a blind trust plan would be approved within three months.

Asked if he would draw up a conflict of interest law once in power, Rutelli said: "Yes, and very quickly."

"But I would like to be very clear, this is not against Berlusconi. We need a law against a conflict of interests...a European, Western, liberal law...regarding anybody who could climb to political leadership or an institutional position while maintaining his economic and financial powers."

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