The Italian president today said he would not seek a second term when his seven year-mandate ends in mid-May, possibly causing delay in the formation of a government after parliamentary elections.

POPE Benedict XVI made an official visit to the Italian president yesterday, just two weeks after the Roman Catholic Church was accused by some of interfering in an Italian referendum on assisted fertility.

Pope Benedict XVI made an official visit to the Italian president today, just two weeks after the Roman Catholic Church was accused by some of interfering in an Italian referendum on assisted fertility.

Italy’s emotional battle over whether to relax restrictions on assisted fertility treatment went to the ballot box today.

Pope Benedict XVI met with the Italian president today in the first formal audience for a head of state since he was elected pontiff.

Pope Benedict XVI is to receive the Italian president today in the first formal audience for a head of state since he was elected to the pontificate.

Silvio Berlusconi was sworn in as premier of Italy’s 60th government in as many years today, after naming a team of ministers that closely resembles the one he led until stepping down days earlier during a power struggle with allies.

ITALY’S president began a round of crisis talks between the country’s leading political figures yesterday aimed at averting early elections after the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Alessandra Rizzo, Rome

Premier Silvio Berlusconi handed the president his resignation today and pledged to form a new government to strengthen a coalition weakened by a sluggish economy and opposition to Italian involvement in Iraq.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi was expected to meet Italy’s president today to discuss his government’s future after a key allied party bolted his centre-right coalition, plunging it into crisis.

Demanding answers and disputing Washington’s version of events, Italy’s premier said an Italian intelligence agent who was shot to death by US troops in Baghdad had informed the proper authorities he was heading to the airport with a freed hostage.

The Italian journalist who was wounded by American troops in Baghdad shortly after she was released by her Iraqi captors denied US allegations that the car she was in was speeding, and described how the agent who had rescued her died protecting her.

European leaders condemned the Madrid bomb blasts as an attack on Spanish democracy.

A SUICIDE bomb attack at the headquarters of Italy’s paramilitary police in southern Nasiriyah yesterday killed at least 26 people — including 18 Italians — and possibly left others trapped in the debris.

At least 12 Italian military policemen and soldiers were killed today when a suicide bomb ripped through their headquarters in southern Iraq.

Seven years after his first, stormy tenure, media baron and conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi was tonight poised to get his chance to govern Italy again.