Sepcial Report: Italy's general election

    ROME, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Italian outgoing President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said Thursday that he had already packed up his bags, five days before he is due to hand over the reins to newly elected head of state Giorgio Napolitano.

    The highly popular 85-year-old president told reporters that on Monday he will receive President Napolitano in his official residence, the Quirinal Palace, and there will be a changeover ceremony before the highest representatives of the State.

    "I'll say a short good-bye and Napolitano will say something if he wants to. After that, we'll shake hands and then I'll climb into my car and head home. I've already packed my few things", he said.

    Ciampi, who declined cross-party appeals to stay on for a second seven-year term, confessed that he was looking forward to resuming a normal life.

    Italy's new president Napolitano, a life senator and the first former Communist to fill the Italian highest institutional post, will be sworn in at local time 15:00 p.m. on Monday, local media reported.

    Ciampi said he would resign on Monday morning, three days before his mandate officially expires.

    Ciampi was elected in 1999 on a first ballot in an unusual show of unity, receiving 707 votes out of a possible 990.

    Italian politicians of all stripes have praised Ciampi as a model president, many expressing regret at his decision to leave the post. Enditem