ROME, Dec. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi kicked off his campaign for re-election next year in fighting style on Friday, according to Italian News Agency ANSA.

    The premier, whose centre-right alliance is trailing in opinion polls, seized the opportunity of an end-of-year press conference to passionately defend his government's record and to rail agains this opponents.

    He said his administration had carried out 30 reforms since being elected in 2001 and created 1.5 million jobs despite being hampered by sluggish economic growth across Europe.

    The premier accused the centre-left opposition, headed by Romano Prodi, of spreading pessimism over the economy.

    Berlusconi, 69, insisted that all five promises made in his 2001 "Contract with Italians" had been kept. These involved lower taxes, better welfare, infrastructure projects, public safety and employment.

    He admitted he had been unable to cut taxes as much as he would have liked due to economic constraints.

    According to independent sources, the overall tax burden in Italy has fallen about 1 percent to 41.2 percent of GDP since 2001.

    Italy's parliament election is scheduled for April 9, next year.

    Mainly because of a sluggish economy, which will this year grow only by about 0.2 percent, Berlusconi has lost some support from the business community and opinion polls put Prodi's alliance well in the lead.

    Berlusconi, who came to power partly by promising to use his business acumen to get the economy moving, is frequently accused by the opposition of not doing enough on this front and being deaf to the problems of the poor.

    Berlusconi also cited "unfair" competition from emerging economies such as China and high oil prices. "All the good we managed to do was in some way canceled by a bad international situation." Enditem