Sepcial Report: Italy's general election

    

Giorgio Napolitano,an Italian life Senator who was elected the country's 11th postwar president last week. (File Photo/Xinhua/Reuters)

ROME, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Giorgio Napolitano, an Italian life Senator who was elected the country's 11th postwar president last week, is to be sworn in on Monday, finally paving the way for the premier-elect Romano Prodi to form a government.

    The 80-year-old Napolitano, also the first former Communist to fill Italy's highest institutional post, will be sworn in at local time 15:00 p.m. on Monday, to succeed President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 85, whose seven-year mandate expires on May 18, local media reported.

    Napolitano was elected with the support of the center-left coalition led by Premier-elect Romano Prodi. Prodi scored a narrow victory over conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi in parliamentary elections in early April and has been waiting since then for a new head of state to be in place so he can receive the formal go-ahead to form a government.

    Napolitano has said he would begin consultations on the mandate of the new government Tuesday. He is expected to meet with the leaders of both coalitions, including Berlusconi, according to the local media.

    Napolitano reportedly spent much of Sunday preparing his address to the nation, which is expected to follow his swearing-in in the Chamber of Deputies.

    In Italy, the president is a largely ceremonial figure that has the task of giving mandates to try to put together new governments. The head of state is traditionally seen as a unifying figure in Italy. Enditem