In a special session of cabinet, the caretaker Italian government of Romano Prodi yesterday approved the use of key NATO bases on Italian soil in any eventual NATO military action against Yugoslavia over the Kosovo crisis.
Although Mr Prodi has been prime minister in a caretaker capacity since losing a confidence motion in parliament last Friday, his government remains constitutionally empowered to approve both the use of Italy's NATO bases and also the NATO activation order itself.
Suggestions that the fall of the Prodi government could complicate Italian involvement in NATO action against Belgrade relate not to the use of NATO bases but to the direct participation of Italian military forces in the action. Ratification of such military involvement needs the approval of parliament.
From NATO's viewpoint, Italy's NATO bases are close to Yugoslavia and are of vital strategic interest, while the military action can, if necessary, go ahead without Italian troops. Political commentators believe that at the moment President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is reluctant to see Mr Prodi seek parliamentary approval for involving Italian military forces. This is because the Yes vote certain to greet such a request would leave Mr Prodi with a de facto new governing coalition.
Ironically, Mr Prodi would find it much easier to have Italian military involvement approved in his current caretaker capacity than if he were still ruling with the centreleft coalition that was defeated on Friday.
That coalition relied on its electoral ally, the ultra-left Rifondazione Communista, for its Lower House parliamentary majority - and it was Rifondazione's failure to support the government's 1999 budget Bill which brought it down last week.
However, Rifondazione had twice previously refused to support the Prodi government, in April 1997 and June 98, on the Italian-led multi-national task force in Albania and on NATO expansion. Rifondazione had been expected not only to vote against the use of Italian forces in any NATO strike on Yugoslavia but also to contest the government's approval of the use of Italy's NATO bases for that action.