Premier Romano Prodi's government has moved ahead on the issue of rights for cohabiting couples, despite the opposition of a key minister, and is now set to present draft legislation on the issue.
A motion requiring the centre-left government to present a bill by February 15 won House approval on Wednesday evening, passing by 301 votes to 266.
Five other motions, including one presented by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella who is against the bill, were defeated.
Mastella, who heads the centrist, Catholic UDEUR party, broke ranks by tabling a two-part motion asking the government not to take legislative initiatives on the issue.
The second part of Mastella's motion asked the government not to put same-sex couples on the same footing as heterosexual ones.
The motion was supported by the centre-right opposition.
Prodi, who won last April's general election, has promised to introduce legislation akin to France's Civil Solidarity Pact (PACS), which grants cohabiting couples including homosexual ones certain administrative and financial benefits.
Same-sex marriages would not be permitted.
Top Italian jurists have stressed that unmarried heterosexual and gay couples in Italy have fewer legal rights than their counterparts almost anywhere else in Europe.
But the issue is a highly explosive one in Catholic Italy, with the Church expressing firm and repeated opposition.
Mastella, whose party won less than 1.5% in the last election, has adopted the Church's line that the legal recognition of unwed couples would undermine the institution of marriage and traditional family values.
He has threatened a government crisis over the issue.
Prodi will need Mastella's support if the bill is to pass the Senate, where the nine-party governing coalition holds only one more seat than the opposition.
Prodi's ministers for equal opportunities and family affairs are now putting the final touches to draft legislation which is expected to receive a cabinet green light by the end of next week.
The current draft of the bill contains 15 articles covering the "rights and duties of cohabiting people".
In order to benefit from the law, heterosexual or gay cohabiting couples would have to register with their local councils, an act which would entail a promise to give each other "reciprocal assistance and material and moral solidarity".
False declarations of cohabitation would be punished by jail terms of up to three years and fines of up to 10,000 euros.
Under the terms of the bill, people would be allowed to benefit from a dead partner's pension providing they have lived together a set number of years, and granted 'next of kin' rights if their loved one is physically or mentally incapacitated or in hospital.
They would be entitled to half the inheritance of a dead partner who has children and the entire inheritance if there are no children or other close family members involved.
Separated partners would also be entitled to alimony for a certain period providing their cohabitation lasted no less than five years.
Foreign partners who cohabit would automatically be entitled to residency permits.
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.
