Italy's new technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti has agreed not to run as a candidate when elections are held, Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the centre-right PDL party, said in an interview published on Sunday. “We asked him and all his ministers to commit themselves publicly to not presenting themselves as candidates at the next elections,” the former prime minister told the Corriere della Sera daily. Berlusconi said Monti had agreed to the request in the presence of the Italian president, adding he had not spoken to each individual minister in his government. Mario Monti was appointed last Wednesday to succeed Berlusconi, who lost his majority in parliament and stepped down under mounting pressure from Italy's worsening debt crisis. Monti has outlined a series of painful reforms to shore up public finances and increase competitiveness.
