Italian President Giorgio Napolitano will hold talks Tuesday and Wednesday paving the way for the formation of Italy's new centre-right government.
Napolitano will set the ball rolling Tuesday afternoon by meeting the new parliamentary Speakers. He will then talk to the leaders of the parliamentary caucuses and wind up his formal consultations on Wednesday afternoon by meeting with his predecessors as head of state.
Napolitano will then hand a government mandate to the leader of the centre-right alliance that won the elections last month, Silvio Berlusconi.
The 71-year-old media tycoon, who is taking power for the third time, will unveil a slimmed-down government line-up at the end of the week.
The government, to be composed of 12 full ministers and eight ministers without portfolio, is expected to be sworn in on Friday or Saturday.
Berlusconi has been cagey about touted appointees, indicating only that former economy minister Giulio Tremonti and ex-foreign minister Franco Frattini will get their old jobs back.
He has openly stated only that his long-time aide Gianni Letta - a respected political fixer - will return as cabinet secretary.
Berlusconi's devolutionist ally the Northern League, which scored big in the general election, is expected to get the interior, reforms and environment posts.
The post-fascist National Alliance, now part of Berlusconi's People of Liberty party (PDL), is tipped to land the justice, defence and welfare portfolios.
Delicate posts like justice and communications are expected to go to stalwarts from Berlusconi's old party Forza Italia.
The only circulated name to have sparked some controversy is Roberto Calderoli, a Northern League heavyweight who was forced to resign from Berlusconi's last government after sporting a T-shirt with one of the notorious Danish cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Mohammed.
Protests from a charity in Libya - where 11 people died in a riot after the 2006 incident - prompted calls for Calderoli to be kept out of the government.
Outgoing foreign minister Massimo D'Alema said Saturday that foreign interference in the formation of the government was unacceptable - but added that he expected Calderoli to forgo such stunts this time around.
