ROME - Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced after a meeting with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Monday that he had not offered his resignation after a government crisis.
Ciampi said in a statement shortly afterwards that he had accepted the resignations of four ministers from the Christian Democrat UDC party.
A separate statement said he had directed Berlusconi to go before parliament to explain the situation, which is expected to occur on Tuesday.
"We'll see how parliament reacts," Berlusconi told journalists who asked him whether his failure to resolve the crisis meant a cabinet reshuffle or would lead to him calling a snap election.
The 68-year-old prime minister had widely been expected to offer his resignation in order to form a new government during a meeting with Ciampi on Monday evening.
His deputy prime minister Gianfranco Fini told journalists earlier after a meeting of coalition leaders that Berlusconi would resign and immediately constitute a new government, to resolve a crisis caused by the withdrawal of the UDC.
"I'm convinced that it's possible to relaunch the centre-right in the shortest possible time," said Fini, leader of the National Alliance party.
The UDC had demanded that Berlusconi resign to form a new government with a revamped program after the coalition suffered a massive defeat in regional elections earlier this month.
But its leader Marco Follini made clear last week his party would continue to support Berlusconi's coalition in parliamentary votes.
The confusion drew the wrath of the centre-left opposition. "This is a crisis which is transforming itself into an indecent farce," said Piero Fassino, leader of the largest opposition party, Democrats of the Left.
"The prime minister by his behaviour is taking his government, the institutions and the whole country for a ride," added Fassino.
"Evidently, there are people in Forza Italia who hope for an institutional government," Lorenzo Cesa, a Euro MP and member of the UDC, told the ANSA news agency.
04/18/2005 18:32 GMT