ROME, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The new Italian government led by Prime Minister Romano Prodi won a vote of confidence in the Lower House on Tuesday.

    Prodi has a relatively strong hold over the Lower House and his center-left government was approved by a vote of 344 to 268.

    Last Friday Prodi won a crucial confidence vote in the Senate, where his center-left coalition holds just two more seats than the opposition.

    The new government was approved by a vote of 165 to 155. All seven senators-for-life voted in favor of his government.

    Prodi was sworn in as Italian premier last Wednesday, almost five weeks after narrowly beating former premier Silvio Berlusconi in Italy's April general election.

    But Berlusconi still refused to concede defeat, vowing to exploit Prodi's weak parliamentary majority and battle the government at every possible turn.

    Under a controversial electoral reform law, forced through by the center-right just before the election and returning Italy to proportional representation, Prodi has a relatively solid hold over the Lower House even though he won there by just 25,000 votes.

    But in the Senate Prodi has 158 seats to Berlusconi's 156.

    However, most of the seven life senators are expected to continue supporting the government together with another independent senator voted in by Italian residents abroad.

    Italian political analysts said Prodi's weak majority and his disparate nine-party coalition - which ranges from Communists and anti-clericalists to staunch Catholics - could prevent him from governing effectively and passing any far-reaching reforms. Enditem