ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suggested Friday that he may not stand for re-election when his term expires in 2013, naming Angelino Alfano, a former justice minister, as a possible successor.
"At the end of the legislative term, I will have been in politics for 20 years, an enormous period because political life is dramatically tough," he said at a rally of youth supporters of his People of Freedom party.
"So if I declined a request from my party to put forward my candidature, I would be justified," he said, adding that he would decide when the time came.
He added that he would like to see the 40 year-old Alfano, appointed earlier this year as coordinator of the PDL, whom he has already identified as his preferred successor, as a future prime minister.
(Writing by James Mackenzie)
