Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tried to calm nerves in his fractious coalition today by promising to relinquish his control of the economy ministry within days.
Mr Berlusconi took over the post at the weekend after two of his coalition partners forced Mr Giulio Tremonti to resign in a row over budget policy. Widespread reports that Berlusconi wanted to keep his grip on the powerful position until the end of the year angered the same coalition partners.
But the media-mogul told an annual conference of Italy's auditing office he would serve as economy minister just "for a few days".
He did not elaborate but said the government's economic programme would be "guaranteed" by Mr Tremonti's successor.
His coalition allies have demanded swift changes in policy after Mr Tremonti quit, with one party threatening to pull out of the ruling coalition unless their demands were met.
The centrist UDC party gave Mr Berlusconi until July 16th to "shake up" the government, posing the biggest threat to his administration since he swept to power three years ago. The withdrawal of the UDC, which has only two ministers, would not automatically bring down the government, but it would severely weaken a centre-right coalition beset by bickering.
The coalition parties have been uneasy about plans by Mr Tremonti and Mr Berlusconi to introduce sweeping income tax cuts next year.