Silvio Berlusconi was given the green light on Friday by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to form a new government.

Berlusconi told reporters after a 60-minute meeting with Ciampi that he had received the president's mandate to form a new executive, averting the need for snap elections.

The center-right leader said he hoped his new administration would be sworn in as early as Saturday.

Berlusconi said the necessary parliamentary confidence vote in his second government would take place early next week.

He also said his restyled program would focus on "relaunching businesses, defending the buying power of families and a plan containing concrete initiatives for the south with the creation of new jobs."

Berlusconi resigned two days ago after almost four years in power.

His resignation was aimed at appeasing disgruntled allies in his four-party coalition which are pushing for a major policy overhaul following the center right's crushing defeat in local elections this month.

Berlusconi returns to power with the same allies but some modifications to his cabinet and program in a bid to woo back voters before next year's general election.

Berlusconi holds the record as Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister and longed to become the first Italian prime minister to serve out a full, uninterrupted five-year term.

He had hoped to resolve the coalition crisis with a limited cabinet reshuffle and has already indicated that his new government will entail very few changes.

Political observers expect a small number of technical ministers with no formal party affiliations to be sacrificed, including Girolamo Sirchia who held the health portfolio.

Sirchia could be replaced by Francesco Storace, a senior National Alliance (AN) official who has just lost his bid for re-election as the regional government chief of Lazio around Rome.

Antonio Marzano, a Forza Italia representative who held the production activities portfolio, could also be ousted in favor of an AN official.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2005)