Berlusconi to receive PM mandate

Berlusconi won the May 13 election

ROME, Italy -- Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi will receive a mandate to form the country's next government on Saturday.

The leader of the conservative Forza Italia party is due to meet the country's president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to officially accept the reigns of power.

Berlusconi, who won an overall majority on May 13, has spent the past four weeks putting together his team that will be Italy's 59th government since World War II.

He has been choosing his team from his own party and his alliance members, the right-wing National Alliance, two centrist parties and the devolutionist Northern League.

Ciampi told reporters minutes before the statement was issued. "I have ended the political consultations and there is total agreement among the parliamentary majority that Silvio Berlusconi ... should receive the mandate to form the government."

Ciampi, himself a former prime minister, has spent the past two days consulting with the newly elected speakers of both houses of parliament and the defeated centre-left bloc led by Francesco Rutelli, as is required by the protracted Italian political process.

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.

Berlusconi's alliance is expected to win the mandatory votes of confidence in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament.

Ciampi is due to meet Berlusconi at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) following a meeting summit of central and Eastern European presidents in the northern lakes resort of Verbania on Saturday afternoon, a palace statement said.

Berlusconi has put the economy at the top of his agenda, and is also expected to tackle the controversial issue of his conflict of interest.

He has said he will consign his media, publishing, advertising and financial services empire to a blind trust to overcome accusations of conflict interest, but the opposition centre-left has already said that might not be enough.

Berlusconi also faces two more court cases, one on bribery charges, the other for false accounting.

The European Union will watch how his government positions itself on issues such as global warming and EU enlargement.

The first indications could be at the EU summit in Sweden in next month.