JUST two days after his election victory was confirmed, Italy’s prime minister-in-waiting, Romano Prodi, struggled yesterday to contain a row within his centre-left coalition that boded ill for his future government.

Centre-left leader Romano Prodi today prepared for his return to power, shrugging off Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s refusal to concede defeat in Italy’s election and facing the first dispute within his wide-ranging coalition.

THE fate of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving premier since World War Two, hung in the balance last night as vote projections from parliamentary election returns swung dramatically back and forth.