By Stephen Brown and Philip Pullella
In a dramatic sequence of events even by Italian standards, Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned last month after his allies defected. Attempts to set up an interim government failed and Berlusconi's calls for an immediate election prevailed.
"It is my regret today to have to call voters back to polling booths without those reforms having been approved," said Napolitano after he and Prodi, now caretaker premier, signed a decree dissolving parliament three years ahead of schedule.
Berlusconi, the Forza Italia leader who has been prime minister twice before, is consistently ahead of Prodi's fragmented centre left in opinion polls, the gap extending to as much as 16 points.
While parliament has been dissolved about nine times before, only one has been shorter-lived than the 20-month legislature that gave Prodi such a rough ride.
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Berlusconi's centre-right coalition was trying to recruit the small Catholic party whose defection sank Prodi, while the hard left, offended at Veltroni's decision that his Democratic Party would run alone, considered fielding their own candidate.
Father Antonio Rungi told Catholic news agency SIR that the right and left, Catholics and secularists, should "overcome their perennial conflicts" and campaign constructively.
With new data showing inflation hit a decade high in January, consumers' dwindling buying power will be a central election issue, and politicians will be tempted to promise generous wage increases or tax cuts.
(Writing by Stephen Brown; additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy and Francesca Piscioneri; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
