Berlusconi hopes to boost party's fortunes

Silvio Berlusconi has been campaigning to the point of exhaustion in hope of boosting fellow conservatives’ fortunes in local balloting across Italy and dealing a blow to Premier Romano Prodi, his archrival who beat him a year ago for the nation’s leadership.

Mayorships and city councils in 850 towns and small cities and governments in seven provinces are up for grabs.

The largest city is Genoa, with many of its 600,000 residents elderly as sagging industrial fortunes have discouraged young people from living there.

Other races will be in Reggio Calabria, a southern city of 200,000 plagued by organized crime, and in Verona, a city of 250,000 in the prosperous North-East.

Mr Berlusconi has spent much of the past weeks in small town squares and auditoriums as he pitched for votes for his Forza Italia party.