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| Italy leader dissolves parliament | Italy leader dissolves parliament |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has dissolved parliament, paving the way for snap elections. | Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has dissolved parliament, paving the way for snap elections. |
| The move comes after the country's leaders held unsuccessful talks to form an interim government. | The move comes after the country's leaders held unsuccessful talks to form an interim government. |
| The political crisis was triggered by last month's resignation of centre-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi who lost a confidence vote in the Senate. | The political crisis was triggered by last month's resignation of centre-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi who lost a confidence vote in the Senate. |
| By law, President Napolitano has to call an election within 70 days of dissolving parliament. | By law, President Napolitano has to call an election within 70 days of dissolving parliament. |
| Mr Prodi - as a caretaker prime minister - is now expected to hold a cabinet meeting to decide the date for the election, widely expected to be held on 13-14 April. | Mr Prodi - as a caretaker prime minister - is now expected to hold a cabinet meeting to decide the date for the election, widely expected to be held on 13-14 April. |
| Electoral reform | |
| Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition was defeated in the Senate in January - soon after the small centrist Udeur party left the government. | |
| Silvio Berlusconi hopes to beat the centre-left bloc | |
| President Napolitano then asked the Senate Speaker, Franco Marini, to put together an interim government with a mandate to reform the electoral law that was widely blamed for the current instability. | |
| Under the current proportional representation system, smaller parties with only a handful of seats hold the balance of power in parliament. There are currently 39 parties in the Italian Parliament. | |
| But after several days of intense talks Mr Marini admitted he had failed to convince the centre-right opposition. | |
| Berlusconi's comeback? | |
| Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, the previous prime minister, had insisted during the crisis talks that only early elections could end the political crisis. | |
| Mr Berlusconi, who framed the existing electoral system, is at least 10 points ahead in opinion polls, the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome says. | |
| Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome, is widely expected to replace Mr Prodi as the centre-left's candidate for prime minister. | |
| Mr Veltroni has signalled that he wants his new Democratic Party to run alone without the support of the other centre-left parties, our correspondent says. | |
| If this happens, analysts predict he will win a greater share of the vote. | |
| But it would mean Mr Berlusconi's coalition will almost certainly be assured victory, our correspondent says. |