Italy's Berlusconi faces poll test

ROME, Italy -- Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi will face his first electoral test in mayoral run-offs on Sunday since being elected Italy's prime minister earlier this month.

Berlusconi, who swept to a majority electoral victory on May 13, has been campaigning hard in three cities against his former prime ministerial challenger Francesco Rutelli.

City elections were held on the same day as the parliamentary elections but Milan was the only major city to be decided with Berlusconi's centre-right coalition candidate Gabriele Albertini holding on to power.

The cities of Rome, Naples and Turin were forced to hold a run-off.

In Rome, where Rutelli was the city's first elected mayor, the centre-right candidate is a former spokesman for Berlusconi during his first spell as premier in 1994.

Antonio Tajani is an ex- journalist who spent his youth in pro-monarchist groups.

His opponent is prominent leftist Walter Veltroni who served as culture minister and until recently, secretary of the largest party in the coalition, the Democratic Left.

In Naples, Berlusconi is fielding a 39-year-old advertiser from his Mediaset media empire, Antonia Martusciello, who will be up against the 64-year-old Rosa Russo Jervolino who is one of the few high-ranking women.

She has served as a Cabinet minister both under the Christian Democrats and the centre-left.

One of the closest fights is expected in Turin, where the centre-right hopeful Roberto Rossi faces the opponent Sergio Chiamparino.

Polls will close at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday with early projections following an hour later. The first official returns are not expected until early on Monday.

Direct mayoral elections only began in Italy in 1993.

Berlusconi suffered a minor setback when the country's supreme court on Saturday took 14 disputed seats in the Chamber of Deputies away from his coalition.

They will be distributed between three left and centre-left parties and one rightist party.

The four are the Democratic Left; the Communist Refoundation; the Daisy alliance and the Berlusconi-allied National Alliance.

The switch is the result of a court challenge based on Italy's complicated part-proportional representation system.