ROME - Finding a delicate compromise to please his fractious allies, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his new government Saturday, keeping key ministers in place while bringing back his longtime ally Giulio Tremonti as deputy premier.
In a bid to end Italy's worst political crisis in four years, Berlusconi confirmed his other deputy and foreign minister, Gianfranco Fini, in the cabinet dubbed "Berlusconi II".
The prime minister faces a vote of confidence in parliament next week when he is to present his new government program.
Berlusconi struggled to convince his key center-right coalition allies -- Fini's National Alliance (AN), the Northern League, and the Christian Democrat UDC party -- to patch up their multiple differences to avoid snap elections, which polls say he would lose.
The nomination of Tremonti appeared to be one such fine compromise. Hailed by the Northern League, it was likely a bitter pill to swallow for Fini, who had forced Tremonti to resign last year accusing him of letting Italy's deficit spin out of control.
To make up for the 57-year-old Tremonti's return, Berlusconi agreed to give the hefty health portfolio to AN's Francesco Storace.
But most of the key ministers of the outgoing cabinet remained in place with Domenico Siniscalco keeping the economy portfolio, Antonio Martino remaining at defense, and Giuseppe Pisanu at interior -- the latter two members of Berlusconi's own Forza Italia.
The League kept its hold on the justice ministry with Roberto Castelli and the controversial reforms ministry with Roberto Calderoli.
Calderoli's confirmation was a major hurdle for Berlusconi as AN insisted that he be replaced, arguing that the election debacle earlier this month was also a rejection of the League's federalist project.
The center-right lost 12 of the 14 regions where elections were held on April 3-4, in what many saw as a dress rehearsal for general elections due in May 2006.
In an apparent effort to reassure the nationalist AN, Berlusconi created the new portfolio of development and territorial cohesion and gave it to Sicily's Gianfranco Micciche.
Increasing aid to Italy's lagging southern regions, boosting the country's industry, and supporting large families are the three main projects Berlusconi has outlined for his new government.
Berlusconi and his new cabinet were sworn in one-by-one by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at a ceremony on Saturday evening.
The prime minister was forced to resign Wednesday after the UDC withdrew its four ministers -- including deputy premier Marco Follini -- and asked the premier to form a new government with a revamped program to show that the ruling coalition had taken note of the voters severe censure.
They all returned except Follini, known to have difficult personal relations with the 68-year-old premier, while UDC's Rocco Buttiglione was moved from European affairs to culture.
Buttiglione was at the center of a political storm when the European parliament refused to approve his nomination as commissioner because of his conservative statements on the role of women and his condemnation of homosexuality as a sin.
Opposition leaders said they were not impressed by the new line-up, which Berlusconi insisted was not a "photocopy" of his previous cabinet.
Communist leader Fausto Bertinotti said the new cabinet was like "watching the revolving doors of a grand hotel, people coming, people leaving, people returning, without being able to see a clear political program."
Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left Union umbrella group, criticized the the return of Tremonti, whom he referred to as "the main person responsible for the downturn in the Italian economy," and the appointment of Storace, the defeated president of Rome's region Lazio.
Prodi said Storace lost in the April 3-4 regional elections because of "poor management of the health system in Lazio."
The opposition asked the president to call early elections, which recent surveys said they would win with a lead of about five percentage points on Berlusconi's House of Freedoms.
Berlusconi had initially resisted resigning after the electoral defeat but was forced to give in to his allies, ending Italy's longest-serving government since World War II at more than four years.

04/23/2005 16:59 GMT