Court Confirms Italian Election Results

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi delivers his address at a Forza Italia (Go Italy) party convention in Trieste, northern Italy, Friday, April 21, 2006. Center-left leader Romano Prodi, shrugging off Premier Silvio Berlusconi's refusal to concede defeat, prepared Friday for his return to power. The first test: ending a power squabble inside his own coalition. Two center-left allies are trying to claim the post of speaker of the lower house of parliament, renewing questions over the cohesion of the ruling bloc. A top newspaper, Corriere della Sera, described the dispute as an "emblematic mess." (AP Photo/Paolo Giovannini) (Paolo Giovannini - AP)

ROME -- An appeals court officially confirmed the incoming Italian prime minister's electoral victory on Saturday when it certified a two-seat Senate majority for center-left leader Romano Prodi.

Outgoing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi still refused to concede, however, promising through his attorney to exhaust all challenges to the results.

The billionaire media mogul will go to the new parliament and further appeals courts to contest the outcome of the vote, said Niccolo Ghedini, Berlusconi's lawyer and a top lawmaker in his Forza Italia party.

"We're going ahead because I think it's the right of all Italians to know who really won the elections," Ghedini was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying.

The confirmation of the center-left's Senate majority, by a court charged with reviewing votes cast by Italians living overseas, had been widely expected.

It gave 158 seats to Prodi's bloc, 156 to Berlusconi's allies and one to an independent _ the majority Prodi needed to win the Senate. On Wednesday, another court confirmed Prodi's razor-thin majority in the lower Chamber of Deputies.

On Friday, Berlusconi spoke of his own "resignation" and referred to a Prodi government _ if only to say it was doomed.

Many analysts have expressed doubts that Prodi's government can last and effectively tackle the country's economic problems, which include rapidly declining competitiveness, high public debt and growing job insecurity.