Boost for Prodi ahead of crucial vote

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi won a confidence vote Wednesday in the lower house of parliament, but faces a seemingly insurmountable hurdle in the Senate -- where a key ally's withdrawal of its support for the government ignited the crisis.

Prodi received 326 votes in favor and 275 against in the lower-house poll, which came ahead of the confidence vote expected to be held on Thursday by the Senate -- the upper house.

He lost a razor-thin majority Monday, when a centrist party in his coalition withdrew its support, wiping out the government's one-vote majority in the Senate.

Should Prodi lose the Senate vote, he would be forced to resign.

However, members of Italy's news media were reporting that the prime minister might decide to step down before the vote, thereby avoiding facing the almost-certain loss.

Prodi's problems began last week, when Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, of the centrist Udeur Party, resigned after his wife was placed under house arrest and he was put under investigation -- both of them for alleged corruption. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Mastella, complaining that his government colleagues failed to support him, then withdrew his party from the coalition.

If Prodi fails to secure a governing majority, President Giorgio Napolitano would open consultations, after which he would decide whether to name a new prime minister or dissolve parliament and call for new elections.

Napolitano may hope to stave off elections in hopes that the law could be changed to limit the ability of small parties to threaten coalition governments by dragging them through a series of confidence votes.

Prodi, who has held office for 20 months after one of the closest-fought elections in Italian history, was forced to resign last February, but was reinstated after a Senate confidence vote.

Observers contend that, should he fail to gain the Senate's support this time, it could spell a new period of instability. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci contributed to this report.

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