Berlusconi sworn in as Italy's prime minister (Roundup)

May 8, 2008, 15:58 GMT

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi led Thursday the members of his new government - Italy's 62nd in 62 years - in a swearing-in ceremony in Rome.

The 71-year-old Berlusconi was the first to take an oath of allegiance to Italy's constitution before the country's head-of- state, President Giorgio Napolitano.

The premier was followed by his 21-member cabinet, each of whom repeated the oath before Napolitano in a hall at the presidential Quirinale Palace.

The new Equal Opportunities Minister, Mara Carfagna, a 32-year-old former showgirl on television channels owned by Berlusconi, was the first of the four female cabinet ministers to be sworn in.

Billionaire-turned-politician Berlusconi's return to office came three weeks after his centre-right coalition's triumph in parliamentary elections.

'Now we can go back to work after an interruption of two years,' Berlusconi said late Wednesday after Napolitano handed him a mandate to form a government.

He was referring to his last stint in office which ended in April 2006 when he lost elections to the centre-left led by former prime minister Romano Prodi.

Berlusconi's new government includes Franco Frattini who resigned as the European Union's top security official to take up the post of foreign minister.

Another key appointment is Giulio Tremonti as economy minister - a return to the position he held in Berlusconi's last government in 2006.

A more controversial choice was the appointment of former reforms minister, Roberto Calderoli from the anti-immigration Northern League, as one of nine ministers not assigned to a specific department.

Calderoli fills the newly created position of minister to simplify legislation. He was forced to resign in 2006 after appearing on television wearing a T-shirt decorated with a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

Last week Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi's son, Saif el-Islam, warned of 'catastrophic consequences' for Italy's relations with Libya if Calderoli joined the new cabinet.

Eleven people were killed in rioting near the Italian consulate in the Libyan city Benghazi in February 2006, just days after Calderoli's appearance on television with the offending T-shirt.

Women included in the cabinet are Maria Stella Gelmini as education minister, Stefania Prestigiacomo as environment minister, and 31-year-old Giorgia Meloni, the youngest cabinet member, who takes up post of youth policy minister.

By comparison, six women served in Prodi's outgoing cabinet which totalled 26 ministers with an average age of 55.65 years. The average age of Berlusconi's government is 52.48.

Other notable appointments to the new government include the leader of the Northern League, Umberto Bossi, who as the new reform minister is likely to be able to push his party's federalist agenda.

Ignazio La Russa from the post-Fascist National Alliance - which merged with Berlusconi's People of Freedom party in the elections - is the new defence minister, while another Northern League member, Roberto Maroni, takes over as interior minister.

Berlusconi has pledged to hold the first 'operational meeting' of the new cabinet in Naples, which has been in the grips of a rubbish crisis since late December 2007.

The premier has made resolving the rubbish crisis in the southern port city his first priority.

But before then, the government still needs to win confidence votes in parliament's two houses - the upper Senate and the lower Chamber of Deputies.

With Berlusconi and his centre-right allies enjoying a comfortable majority in both houses, the process is expected to be completed by the end of next week.

Berlusconi first served as prime minister in 1994-95, when his government collapsed after nine months because of internal differences.

He regained power in the April 2001 elections and remained in office for five years, the longest term in post-World War II Italian history.