Outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti posted his reform agenda online today, urging Italians to join a debate on their country's future as potentially bitter election campaign gets underway two months before Italy goes to polls.
Centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani is favorite among Italians to lead the next government, with outgoing technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti second most popular and Silvio Berlusconi coming a close third, a poll showed.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano today, the president's office said, paving the way for national elections in February.
Italy's head of state dissolved parliament and opened the way to a February election, with doubts growing over whether outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti will participate in what promises to be a bitter campaign.
Italian caretaker Prime Minister Mario Monti said he would be ready to run for a second term in next year's election if he was asked to do so by political forces that adopted his reform agenda.
European partners heaped praise on outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti today, and called for the next government to stick to his reform agenda after his surprise decision to resign rattled financial markets.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said he wanted to influence political debate in whatever role he fills after elections next year but he left his future open following speculation he may remain in politics.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti stood before the cold stones slabs that hold the remains of St Francis and prayed to the man who preached what the Franciscans call "the gift of discernment" - the wisdom and courage to make the right choice.
Prime Minister Mario Monti rejected suggestions that Italy should seek aid from its euro zone partners to bind a new government to strict reform conditions after elections likely to be held in March.
Italian former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gave a strong hint today that he would stand in next year's election, declaring he would not allow Italy to spiral into recession and saying he had been "besieged by requests" to run.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti announced today that he intended to resign once next year's budget is approved in parliament after Silvio Berlusconi's party withdrew its support for his technocrat government this week.
The parties that support Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's unelected government demanded changes to his budget on Saturday, saying it would hurt households already suffering from austerity measures.
Prime Minister Mario Monti said he expected it would be only a few more months before signs of recovery start to emerge in the recession-hit Italian economy.
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi called for a change in economic policy after what he called a "disastrous" year of austerity under the technocratic government of Mario Monti.
Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande will present a united front towards Greece at talks today. The two European leaders will also meet Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras later this week.
Speaking at a meeting of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Merkel acknowledged that Germany was "not an island" that could disconnect from economic developments in Europe and the world economy.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said he would not run in elections due in spring, in an interview in which he said Italy no longer risked igniting a debt crisis in the euro zone.
Italy's major political parties clashed over plans to change much-criticised electoral laws as manoeuvering intensified ahead of a vote due to take place next May at the latest.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said today that Europe was starting to see light at the end of the tunnel of the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis, belying a welter of deteriorating economic data.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said the end of the economic crisis in his country was in sight and that the euro zone must not let the single currency become a source of friction between the north and south in the bloc.
An earthquake killed at least 15 people in northern Italy today, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor in the same region destroyed their homes just over a week ago.
The leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain will try to find common ground in Rome today to restore confidence in the euro zone ahead of a full EU summit next week, which Italy's prime minister called a defining moment.
The leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain agreed today on a 130 billion euros ($156 billion) package to try to revive economic growth in Europe but differed over whether and how to launch joint bonds to combat the euro zone's debt crisis.
Thousands of Italian trade unionists marched through Rome today to protest against pension changes, the latest sign of mounting opposition to Prime Minister Mario Monti's economic reforms.
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti expressed concern over the government’s plans to seize control of oil company YPF, as announced by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Monday. The premier also voiced his discontentment over trade barriers set by the Argentine government to protect local industries.
Italy is likely to register a strong protest vote against belt-tightening in local elections that will provide a fresh snapshot of Europe's changing political landscape a year ahead of a national ballot.
Prime Minister Mario Monti's drive to force through labour reform in Italy ran into political trouble, raising the risk that the coalition supporting him in parliament could splinter or the measures be weakened.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti expressed concern about Spain's public finances and said it would not take much to reignite the euro zone debt crisis and revive the risk of it spreading to Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti today played down the risk that economic troubles in Spain would spread to the rest of Europe and said he believed the euro zone debt crisis was nearly over.
An Italian and a British hostage kidnapped in May in Nigeria were killed today by their captors during a joint raid by British and Nigerian forces in an operation to free them, Italy's government said.
President Giorgio Napolitano led a chorus of condemnation of Britain's failure to inform the Italian government before launching a botched rescue mission with Nigerian forces that led to the deaths of British and Italian hostages held by a militant Islamist group.
Italy's largest trade union called a general strike over labour reforms today, escalating a confrontation with Prime Minister Mario Monti and testing his resolve to transform the euro zone's third biggest economy.
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti called for significantly more firepower for the euro zone's bailout fund after a bond auction did little to ease concerns over how the country would finance public spending in the next few months.
Italy's cabinet approved legislation to deregulate some service sectors and professions in an effort to increase competition, cut costs to consumers and boost chronically weak growth in the euro zone's third largest economy.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti warned today that the euro zone debt crisis was fuelling dangerous divisions and resentment within the currency bloc and said it was wrong to try to divide member states into "goodies and baddies".
Minister Mario Monti's government won a parliamentary confidence vote on its austerity package today. It now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved before Christmas, probably with another confidence vote.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, politicians and newspaper editors have been sent letters containing bullets and threats over government austerity measures, police said.
Italy's Senate passed a vote of confidence in the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti today that put the final seal on an emergency austerity budget rushed through to restore market confidence in the euro zone's third biggest economy.
Prime Minister Mario Monti pledged measures to ensure that Italy meets its goal of balancing the budget even if economic prospects worsen, and said no approach for help had been made to the International Monetary Fund.
Italy would have risked a Greek-style economic crisis without the government's new 30-billion euro austerity package, Prime Minister Mario Monti said.
Italy's new Prime Minister Mario Monti, trying to push through a tough austerity package he says is vital for the country's financial salvation, faced two calls for national strikes and saw a dip in his public support today.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti comfortably won a vote of confidence in his new government on Thursday after promising rigour and fairness in painful reforms to dig the country out of a financial crisis that threatens the entire euro zone.
Italy's new technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti has agreed not to run as a candidate when elections are held, Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the centre-right PDL party, said in an interview published today.
France and Germany agreed today to stop arguing in public over whether the European Central Bank should do more to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said today he hoped his new government of technocrats could restore market confidence in the country and calm a tense political climate.
Monti, a former European commissioner, was the first member of the new government to be sworn in by President Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace.
Thousands of Italians took to the streets in several cities today to protest against what they called a "bankers' government" led by economist Mario Monti, and there were clashes with police.
Italy's Senate approved the austerity measures demanded by the European Union to avert a euro zone meltdown.The new budget law is to clear the way for final approval of the package in the lower house tomorrow and the formation of an emergency government to replace Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Italy's president appointed former European Commissioner Mario Monti to head a new government charged with implementing urgent reforms to end a crisis that has endangered the whole euro zone.
Prime Minister designate Mario Monti will meet Italy's president on Wednesday to present a new government to face a crisis that has brought Italy to the brink of economic disaster and endangered the entire euro zone.
Italian professional soccer should be halted for two or three years to get over the match-fixing scandal which has spattered its image, Prime Minister Mario Monti said.