Italian President Giorgio Napolitano urged swift action to strengthen planned austerity measures, saying a severe market selloff was a clear warning that markets had lost confidence in Italy.
The Italian Senate approved the government's widely criticised austerity programme aimed at staving off financial crisis in a vote of confidence called by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano told political parties to make faster progress to reform the electoral law and expressed concern over speculation that there may be an early general election.