Sepcial Report: Italy's general election

    ROME, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Italy's outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi submitted his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Tuesday, the presidential palace said in a statement.

    Ciampi "received (Berlusconi) who submitted his resignation from the government he heads," the statement said.

    The president also asked Berlusconi to stay on in a caretaker role until a new government was formed, it added.

    Berlusconi arrived at the Quirinale Palace earlier in the day after leading a final cabinet meeting during which he announced his intent to step down.

    The resignation came weeks after Berlusconi had refused to concede defeat in the April 9-10 general election, in which the center-left coalition led by Romano Prodi won a razor-thin victory with a margin of 25,000 votes.

    Berlusconi had said he would challenge the election results through legal means and he also vowed to continue as opposition in the new legislature.

    Berlusconi, 69, was elected to office in 2001 and presided over the longest-serving cabinet in post-war Italy.

    During the center-right cabinet's five years of rule under Berlusconi, Italy, Europe's fourth largest economy, has struggled with a slow growth rate and a surging budget deficit.

    Prodi, the former European Commission president, is working on the line-up of his new center-left cabinet.

    However, the 66-year-old prime minister-designate may have to wait till the successor to Ciampi, whose presidential mandate will expire on May 18, is elected by the new parliament.

    Prodi has promised to focus his government's work on its economy. Enditem