Berlusconi's New Government Wins Confidence Vote

[Freddie Stubbs]

By Robin Pomeroy and Gavin Jones

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a confidence vote in parliament Wednesday, giving him up to a year more in power to persuade skeptical electors to give him a second term.

The vote was the penultimate step to ending a government split in which the media tycoon was forced to resign last week by coalition parties who demanded a change of tack after he suffered a devastating regional election defeat.

The lower house voted 334 to 240 in favor of the confidence motion with two abstentions. The upper house is likely to give its backing in a vote due Thursday, drawing a line under the worst political crisis of Berlusconi's four years in office.

In a spirited performance ahead of the vote, Berlusconi told the opposition it was wrong to think he was fatally weakened by events and that the center-left leader, former European Commission President Romano Prodi, would win the next election.

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