Monti to form next Italy cabinet

Technocrat Mario Monti has been told to form a new Italian government after resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday.

The appointment came after a day of meeting with top politicians held by President Giorgio Napolitano.

Mr Monti, an ex-EU commissioner, said he planed a return to growth for Italy and a return to pride for Italians.

He requires a working majority in parliament to implement an austerity plan. Most parties areagree his nomination.

Italy's borrowing costs has been increased, threatening the eurozone.

Mr Monti's candidature was announced after Mr Napolitano spent the day in 17 meetings with senior politicians.

Angelino Alfano, a senior figure in Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, said after meeting the president that the party was ready to back Mr Monti, but it would upto new government's make-up and policies.

No politician who "was engaged in pure anti-government militancy" while Mr Berlusconi was in power should join it, he said.

Speaking in a recorded TV address, Mr Berlusconi himself said he would redouble his efforts in parliament to modernise Italy.

Most centrists and centre-left parties in the opposition have already pledged their support, but Mr Berlusconi's main coalition ally, the Northern League, has made clear it wants early elections and will not back Mr Monti.

On Sunday, its leader Umberto Bossi reiterated his party would "not back technocrat PM Monti until we know his policies".

The new prime minister will be responsible for implementing austerity measures aimed at tackling Italy's debt crisis, which last week saw its cost of borrowing increase to record levels and prompted alarm across the eurozone.

Amid the crisis, Mr Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority and promised to resign once measures required by the EU and designed to restore markets' confidence in the country's economy had been passed by both houses of parliament.

Members of the lower house voted 380-26 with two abstentions on Saturday, a day after the Senate agreed the measures that have now been signed into law.

Mr Berlusconi, who dominated the country's politics for 17 years and became Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister, drove to the presidential palace on Saturday evening to tender his resignation.

Greece to swear in unity cabinet and new PM

Greece's new coalition cabinet and Prime Minister-designate Lucas Papademos are due to be formally sworn in, after a week of political turmoil.

The fresh government's most difficult task is to approve Greece's recent EU bailout package and protect bankruptcy.

Mr Papademos is not elected MP, has said his first priority will be to keep Greece in the eurozone.

He is planed with putting the debt-laden country back on track before elections, probably in February.

Outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou was asked not to interfere after a disastrous call for a referendum on the eurozone rescue package.

The referendum plan was rejected within a some days, but not before sparking a financial and political crisis that threatened to engulf the eurozone.

Lucas Papademos named as new Greek prime minister

Former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos has been named as Greece's new prime minister, following days of negotiations.

Mr Papademos, 64, said he was taking over at a "critical time" for Greece.

Leaders of the three big parties establishing up a new government of national unity had been meeting the Greek president to try to reach a deal.

Greeks will hope the news provides the stability to get them through their debt crisis, correspondents say.

Mr Papademos, he is not a member of parliament, will lead an interim government until elections can take place in February coming year.

The govermment's main purpose will to ensure debt-laden Greece gets its latest bailout payment, by sanctioning a new 130bn euro ($177bn; £111bn) international rescue deal from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.

"The president, after recommendations by political parties who attended the meeting, has instructed Lucas Papademos to form a new government," the president's office said in a statement.

The new government would be sworn in at 12:00 GMT on Friday, a presidency official said.