A bill proposing key rights for unmarried couples won a green light from the cabinet on Thursday after centre-left allies hammered out a compromise on an issue which has divided it for months.
The bill, stoutly opposed by the Catholic Church, went too far for at least one party in the coalition and not far enough for left-wingers.
Deputy Premier Francesco Rutelli called it a "high moment of reconciliation" in Romano Prodi's nine-party alliance, which stretches from Catholic centrists to communists.
Under the terms of the measure, unmarried couples - including gay and lesbian ones - would acquire some of the rights enjoyed by married couples by registering their union and then living together for a certain number of years.
Partners would automatically have the right to inherit each other's property after living together for at least nine years.
Their names would be interchangeable on tenancy agreements after three years together and they would be able to draw a dead partner's pension after a number of years to be decided in a future pension reform.
Partners in unmarried couples would also be granted 'next of kin' rights when one of them was in jail, in hospital or mentally incapacitated.
The bill, which must now go to parliament for debate and approval, won its green light in the cabinet without the vote of Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, leader of the Catholic Udeur party.
An opponent of the bill from the start, Mastella deliberately stayed away from the meeting. He said earlier on Thursday that he would not support the measure although he would not provoke a government crisis over it either.
At the other end of the centre-left coalition, there were also gripes from communist MPs, who had campaigned for French-style PACS contracts and branded the Italian measure much too "modest".
"We are not satisfied by this bill, which must be radically improved in parliament," said Valdimir Luxuria, a transsexual lawmaker who has been at the forefront of the PACS campaign.
NO CONFIDENCE VOTE.
Although the government has only a razor-thin majority in the Senate, officials said it will not call a do-or-die confidence vote on the bill in order to force Mastella and other possible dissenters into line.
This means that the government cannot fall if it does not muster enough votes to approve the measure. In fact, the bill is expected to have the support of some opposition senators who could provide the necessary votes.
Despite the grumbles, there was also satisfaction and tangible relief in the centre left that a solution had been found to a problem which has haunted the coalition since its inception.
"I think we have reached a balanced accord," Democratic Left leader Piero Fassino said. "This is the first time that our legislation will give cohabiting couples certain rights that are essential for a life without undue worry".
According to the most recent available figures from national statistics bureau Istat, the number of unmarried couples living together in Italy doubled between 1994 and 2003 from 227,000 to 555,000.
Recent polls show that most Catholics in the country - 68.7% - are in favour of PACS-like legislation despite the repeated condemnation of Pope Benedict XVI.
The Italian Catholic Church continued on Thursday to take every opportunity to voice its opposition to the bill.
An editorial in the bishops' daily, Avvenire, said that traditional family values would be "polluted" by any move to put unmarried people on a par with married ones.
"It would devalue a social unit that the Italian constitution protects and specifically encourages," it said.
Large swathes of the centre-right opposition attacked the compromise bill approved by the cabinet, with one MP calling it a "demolition" of the family and another promising a fierce battle in parliament.
"It's just something they came up with, not to resolve a problem, but to keep going a bit longer," said Francesco Pionati of the centrist UDC party.
