Italy's poll rivals end campaigns

Silvio Berlusconi: Italy's next prime minister?

MILAN, Italy -- Election rivals Silvio Berlusconi and Francesco Rutelli have wound up their rival campaigns to be Italy's next prime minister.

After a month of campaigning from the Alps in the north to Sicily in the south, the two men made their last pledges and traded their last insults on Friday.

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Each is bidding to become the head of Italy's 59th government since World War II.

Centre-left leader Rutelli chose the port of Naples to hold his last rally.

"Remember what happened in 1994 when my rival won the election promising a million new jobs?" he asked.

"He ended up giving Italy a few thousand extra unemployed and 200 trillion lire ($90 billion) of extra public debt."

Rutelli also lashed out at Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, a Berlusconi ally, for advocating devolution for Italy's northern regions, calling him an "an enemy of the south."

The centre-right chose Rome's huge Piazza del Popolo for its closing rally where Berlusconi, who is the narrow favorite to win the election, was due to make his last appearance.

He had earlier reiterated his pledges to cut taxes and crime, raise pensions, create 1.5 million new jobs and increase public works projects.

Berlusconi told RAI state television that he is prepared tol leave politics in five years -- the length of parliament if it survives its full term -- if he fails to achieve at least four of his five goals.

"I will tack it on my bedroom door," he said.

Campaigning officially ended at midnight, after which Italians get a welcome 24-hour respite from comments by candidates, who are obliged by law to observe a day of silence ahead of Sunday's elections.

In another final piece of campaigning Umberto Bossi, leader of Italy's devolutionist Northern League, urged voters to kick the left out of government or risk losing Italy's sovereignty.

Speaking at a rally in Milan, Bossi, founder of the anti-immigrant party targeted the European Union, which he has accused of aiming to take away Italy's decision-making powers.

"There's a different kind of Europe to be built and on May 13 voters must decide to choose to lose national sovereignty by voting for the left and putting Italy in the hands of technocrats, or take the road of freedom," Bossi said.

Bossi, whose Northern League is allied to Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, has said throughout the month-long election campaign that he does not oppose the EU, just those who run it.

He believes the EU should be made up of regions such as Italy's Lombardy, Spain's Catalonia and Britain's Scotland.

He pressed home his familiar call for a "confederal Europe with devolution of central government powers to the regions."

The League has based much of its election campaign on its outspoken opposition to immigration, prompting comparisons in Europe between Bossi and Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider.

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