Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has told Silvio Berlusconi he should resolve quickly the conflict of interests he faces as media tycoon and future prime minister, political sources and newspapers said on Thursday.
The billionaire media baron met Ciampi for two hours on Wednesday afternoon for the first time since his center-right coalition triumphed in Sunday's general election.
Ciampi, in his role as supreme arbiter in Italian politics, spoke about Berlusconi's conflict of interests and the need for the formation of a strong government with ministers of standing, one political source told Reuters.
Financial markets and some European Union partners want to see a strong team in place to be able to push through policies and reform to try to end Italy's history of postwar "revolving-door" governments.
Berlusconi's administration will be Italy's 59th since 1945.
Some analysts at first believed Berlusconi's victory was solid enough for him to do without the parliamentary support of the devolutionist Northern League, which has questioned the way the EU is run and accused it of eroding Italian sovereignty.
But results show Berlusconi will probably need the backing of the League in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, though not necessarily in the lower house -- ROME (Reuters)
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