Italy: Government to stake future on taxation vote

Italy's conservative government will use a confidence vote in an attempt to pass measures that would grant local governments more power over levying and spending tax money, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday.
The confidence vote will only take place in the lower house of parliament, Berlusconi told a press conference in Rome.
"We would put the meaures to a vote in the Chamber of Deputies, not the Senate," he said.
A vote on the package of tax changes lost a vote in the joint commission of the upper and lower houses on 3 February. President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign a late-night attempt by Berlusconi's government to pass it by decree following the failed vote.
The so-called fiscal federalism plan is a favoured project of Berlusconi's Northern League party ally. The Northern League could bring down the government if it pulls out of the ruling coalition, as it has threatened to do if the tax plan doesn't get passed.
Berlusconi narrowly survived 14 December a no-confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies. His power in the lower house was significantly weakened late last year when a key ally of his ruling People of Freedom party split off, making him vulnerable to confidence votes.
Berlusconi has since managed to convince some politicians to return to the fold, but losing a confidence vote could signal the end of his government, two years before his five-year mandate expires in 2013.
By AKI English