Italy prepares for polls

ROME (Reuter) - President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro yesterday pointed Italy towards a general election as he met parliamentary leaders to discuss dissolving Italy's discredited legislature.

Mr Scalfaro, who must consult the speakers of both houses before he can dissolve parliament, is expected to announce the move tomorrow.

Political commentators were virtually certain he would name 27 March as the date for elections which are expected to punish the political class that has run Italy for four decades. Magistrates have investigated more than one-third of the two houses' 945 members in the course of a scandal that has exposed entrenched bribery and corruption and alleged Mafia links.

The first shots of the election battle were fired on Thursday night in a televised debate between the two men on whom most attention will focus: Achille Occhetto on the left of the political spectrum and Mario Segni of the centre.

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Prime Minister, resigned on Thursday after a lower-house debate highlighted deep divisions over the timing of the election. Mr Scalfaro has yet to decide whether to accept Mr Ciampi's resignation and could ask the respected former central-bank governor to stay on until the polls.