Specail Report: Italy's general election  

    ROME, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Romano Prodi, the leader of Italy's center-left coalition, suffered a setback early Saturday after his coalition failed for a third time to elect its candidate for the speaker of the Senate.

    Prodi's choice, Franco Marini of the Margherita party, one of his coalition allies, won 161 votes, one less than the number he needed for an outright win against the center-right's candidate Giulio Andreotti, who netted 155.

    The latest vote underlined the problems Prodi, who leads a coalition with a tiny two-seat majority in the Senate, will face when he takes office as the new prime minister next month after a hotly contested election early this month.

    Marini failed to get elected in the first round of elections. He appeared to have prevailed in the second round, reaching the required majority of 162 votes, but the acting speaker of the Senate annulled the vote after the validity of three ballots was questioned. Enditem