Berlusconi looks for partners

Berlusconi: Shaping a new administration

MILAN, Italy -- The leader of a small anti-immigration party has laid claim to a role in Italy's government following the centre-right coalition's election victory.

House of Freedom coalition leader Silvio Berlusconi, basking in Sunday's triumph, spent Tuesday preparing to put together a new government.

While Berlusconi has a comfortable margin of 53 in the lower Chamber of Deputies, he may need to help from the anti-immigration Northern League in the Senate.

The coalition has an absolute majority of just 14 in the Senate.

The Northern League defected from the government in 1994 bringing down Berlusconi's government after only seven months.

Northern League leader Umberto Bossi told a news conference on Tuesday that he believed the league must be part of the government and hold senior positions.

"We are a decisive factor in the Senate," said Bossi, who is viewed with suspicion overseas because of his anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic views.

"There is no doubt that we will have our men in important posts in ministries."

The league won 17 seats in the Senate.

Apart from his anti-immigrant sentiment, Bossi attacked the European Union during the election campaign, accusing it of wanting to rob Italy of its sovereignty and proposed the EU be made up of a family of regions such as Lombardy, Scotland and Catalonia.

He said Brussels was over-bureaucratic and behaved like a "Soviet Union of the West."

The scale of Berlusconi's victory showed Italians were little concerned by any conflict of interest he could face as leader of both the world's sixth biggest economy and a media empire, including nearly all of Italy's private TV stations.

Berlusconi had said last week that he expected Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Italian carmaker Ferrari, to play a role in his administration.

However, Montezemolo announced on Tuesday that he had ruled himself out of contention due to other commitments.

Meanwhile Italy's centre-left leader Francesco Rutelli said on Tuesday he had been given a mandate to continue leading the Olive Tree coalition in opposition.

The former mayor of Rome said that he and his deputy, Piero Fassino, had been confirmed during a meeting of centre-left party heads in Rome.

And a former anti-corruption magistrate, who lost his bid for a parliamentary seat, announced he is to seek a recount in some areas where polling irregularities were reported amid chaotic scenes.

Antonio Di Pietro is targeting 30 to 40 polling stations, mainly in the south of Italy, where local officials reported that ballots were torn by voters incensed at the long wait -- which saw some booths open over six hours past the official close of voting.

Spokesman Giovanni Taormina stressed that none of the stations concerned had affected Di Pietro's unsuccessful bid for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

Di Pietro is Italy's most famous anti-corruption magistrate, who launched a series of investigations in the early 1990s that brought down hundreds of politicians and businessmen.

Berlusconi was among his targets and still has cases pending against him.