ROME, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Parliament is set to elect the country's new president on Wednesday after failing for a second day running Tuesday to elect the county's head of state.

    Prime Minister-in-waiting Romano Prodi's presidential candidate,Giorgio Napolitano, failed to gain the two-thirds majority required for election after two days of wrangling and inconclusive ballots.

    The voting was set to resume on Wednesday, when the necessary majority for victory drops to just over 50 percent.

    Prodi's center-left coalition has a small majority in the Chamber of Deputies and a very slim margin in the Senate. Prodi and his allies had urged the opposition to back their candidate.

    In Italy, the post of president is largely ceremonial, but under the constitution, the president names the prime minister and dissolves parliament.

    Outgoing President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi declined to award the mandate for the next government, preferring to leave the task to his successor. Enditem