ROME, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Italian center-right candidate and former Agriculture Minister Giovanni Alemanno was voted as Rome mayor on Monday.

    Alemanno beat his center-left rival Francesco Rutelli -- Italy's outgoing Culture Minister and two-time former Rome mayor -- by 53.7 percent to 46.3 percent.

    "We've performed a real political miracle ... I will be a mayor for all Romans. My thoughts are also with those who did not vote for me, a decision which I respect. I guarantee that I will be their mayor too," Alemanno told reporters in triumphant tones.

    Rutelli, meanwhile, said he felt "great sorrow" at his defeat.

    The run-off ballot followed a first round of voting two weeks ago won by Rutelli.

    Rutelli, who was Rome mayor from 1993 to 2001, gained 45.8 percent to Alemanno's 40.7 percent but failed to break the 50 percent-plus-one threshold which would have given him an outright victory.

    Alemanno is an ally of center-right chief Silvio Berlusconi, who swept back to power in Italy's April 13-14 general election.

    A former neofascist, Alemanno is a member of the right-wing National Alliance (AN) which recently merged with Berlusconi's Forza Italia party to form the new People of Freedom party (PDL).

    His win was another blow for Italy's center left, which is still reeling from its election losses and had viewed Rome as a safe stronghold.

    The city has been administered continuously by the center or the center left since the end of the war.

    After Rutelli stepped down as mayor in 2001 to wage an unsuccessful bid for the premiership against Berlusconi, former Communist Walter Veltroni was voted in.

    Rutelli had expected to profit from the popularity of Veltroni, who was re-elected to a second term in 2006 when he beat Alemanno with more than 60 percent of the vote.

    Veltroni said on Monday that Rutelli's defeat was "very serious."

    Alemanno, the 50-year-old politician, who was born in the southern city of Bari, has come under fire for his neofascist political roots.

    He is married to Isabella Rauti -- the daughter of far-right diehard Pino Rauti -- and wears a Celtic cross around his neck, a symbol of the far right in Italy.

    He was agriculture minister in the previous government headed by Silvio Berlusconi between 2001 and 2006.

    Alemanno was re-elected to the Lower House in 1996, 2001 and 2006.

    In 2006, Alemanno ran for Rome mayor but was beaten by Walter Veltroni.