Italy PM appointment due

Berlusconi won the May 13 election

ROME, Italy -- Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is expected to appoint Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister within days.

Ciampi began talks with politicians on Thursday ahead of making the expected appointment on either Friday or Saturday, Italian media reported.

Berlusconi won the May 13 general election with his centre-right coalition, but has taken nearly a month to form his government.

The president's non-partisan role is largely ceremonial but he appoints a prime minister who is capable of commanding a majority in the parliament.

Ciampi, the head of state, began consultations with the newly elected speakers of both houses of parliament and then saw leaders of the defeated centre-left bloc led by Francesco Rutelli at the presidential palace on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported.

Ciampi, himself a former prime minister, will continue talks with political figures on Friday, the president's office said.

Ciampi was then expected to summon billionaire businessman Berlusconi to give him the mandate to form Italy's 59th government since 1945.

Berlusconi's conservative Forza Italia and its allies -- the rightist National Alliance, two small centrist parties and the devolutionist Northern League -- together won outright majorities in both houses of parliament in election.

Berlusconi has begun meetings with international figures ahead of a series of European summits.

Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union, arrived at Berlusconi's offices in central Rome in the latest leg of talks with European leaders ahead of next week's EU summit in Gothenburg, Reuters said.

Persson, accompanied by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, had earlier met outgoing Prime Minister Giuliano Amato.

Berlusconi advised Amato on Wednesday that his outgoing government should not agree to anything at an EU environment ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday that would be binding on the new administration.

Amato's minister Giovanni Mattioli said he would support an EU declaration backing the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming, but Berlusconi objects because he said the EU should keep dialogue open with the U.S., which opposes the treaty.