Prodi under pressure as minister quits

Italy’s justice minister resigned today following a corruption probe involving his wife, putting further strain on Premier Romano Prodi’s shaky government.

However, the resignation by Clemente Mastella, head of a small centrist party, was not expected to bring down the 20-month-old centre-left coalition.

Mastella said he was “throwing in the towel", addressing parliament hours after Italian reports said his wife had been ordered under house arrest.

“I am resigning to be more free, from a political and personal point of view,” Mastella said. “I am resign because between the love of my family and that of power, I choose the former.”

His wife Sandra Lonardo Mastella a top official for the southern Campania region, was ordered to remain under house arrest during a probe into alleged corruption in the health care system in the city of Caserta, near Naples.

She denies any wrongdoing and her husband called it a “violent and unfair attack” and described the move as yet another attempt to discredit him for his efforts at reforming the judiciary.

No replacement has been announced for Mastella, a veteran politician who heads the centrist UDEUR party, which is close to the Vatican. The party is key to ensuring Mr Prodi’s slim majority in the upper house of parliament