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 the fragmented centre left in opinion polls, by 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 after he won the closest vote in Italy's modern history.
TIME FOR INSULTS
Berlusconi's centre-right coalition was trying to recruit the small Catholic party whose defection sank Prodi, while the left voiced alarm at Veltroni's decision that his Democratic Party would ditch its allies and run alone.
Veltroni, a former communist, said it was "time to take a risk", though he was open to parliamentary alliances later on with "the reform-minded left but not the radical left".
One priest urged the Roman Catholic country to avoid making the campaign "a time to insult and humiliate the adversary".
Many economists say another government elected under current voting rules will prove just as unstable as Prodi's, who was undermined by constant bickering between centrist and leftist allies. But another free-spending Berlusconi government could undo Prodi's work on cutting the budget deficit.
Berlusconi's spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti promised a "calm and constructive election campaign" focusing on issues like "rising prices and housing".
