Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said Friday he had asked centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to try break a post-election deadlock and form a new government, and report back to him "as soon as possible," dpa reported. Bersani, a former communist who turned into a market liberalizer when serving as a minister in previous centre-left administrations, faces an uphill task and is not at all guaranteed to become Italy's next prime minister. He is facing a stalemate, as in elections last month no coalition won overall control of the two houses of parliament. His centre-left alliance has a safe majority in the Chamber of Deputies, but is 35 seats short of a Senate majority. "I will get down to work," Bersani said, indicating he would talk to all political forces as well as social partners. -- SPA 20:59 LOCAL TIME 17:59 GMT تغريد
