Outgoing Premier Romano Prodi and premier-in-waiting Silvio Berlusconi were caught in a row Thursday over who would name Italy's next European commissioner.
The wrangle began shortly after Berlusconi swept back to power in Italy's general election on Sunday and Monday.
The billionaire media magnate immediately announced that Franco Frattini, who is currently European justice and security commissioner, would return to Italy to serve as his foreign minister - a post he already held from 2002-2004 and which he relinquished to go to Brussels.
Berlusconi said on Thursday that it was up to his new government to appoint Frattini's successor, toughening his previous line that it would be a form of ''institutional politeness'' on Prodi's part to let him decide.
''Frattini's resignation will take some time and by then, it will be the new government which will appoint the next commissioner,'' the 71-year-old centre-right chief told reporters.
But on Wednesday, Prodi had been equally adamant that his outgoing centre-left administration would make the decision.
Responding to press rumours that Berlusconi wanted his former spokesman MEP Antonio Tajani to take over the job, Prodi said: ''I will be the one naming the new European commissioner''.
''Let it be clear that the moment Frattini opts for the Italian parliament, I will be obliged by law to make the new appointment... Either that, or Frattini renounces (the ministerial post),'' said Prodi, who beat Berlusconi in the 2006 election only to be brought down by a centrist ally three months ago.
Prodi also said he had made overtures to Berlusconi aimed at finding a consensual candidate but had received no response.
He said he then sent the centre-right leader a list of five potential candidates but again heard nothing back.
Prodi stressed he was still open to the idea of a commissioner who met the approval of both sides.
Centre-left opposition chief Walter Veltroni, who has just been defeated by Berlusconi, said Berlusconi was off to a bad start and hoped he would change tack.
''With regard to the issue of European commissioner, I hope dialogue will prevail,'' the former Rome mayor said.
Italy's other opposition party, the centrist, Catholic UDC, also urged a ''bipartisan appointment''.
The only comment from the European Commission was that it was ''waiting for clarification on the future of commissioner Frattini''.
Spokesman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said the EC had given Frattini 12 days to communicate his decision.
MEP Graham Watson, the president of the Liberal faction in the European parliament, said that he hoped the Italian government would choose ''a serious, competent, moderate and capable candidate who enjoys the confidence of a broad majority in the European parliament''.
European Commission President Jose' Manuel Barroso will be anxious to avoid a replay of 2004, when Italy's candidate for commissioner had to be dropped from the line-up because of his staunchly Catholic views on homosexuality and marriage met with opposition from European lawmakers.
Buttiglione enraged many Euro MPs by saying he considered homosexuality a ''sin'' and describing marriage as an institution designed to allow women to have children and be protected by their husbands.
Frattini was subsequently drafted in to replace him.
Some MEPs have already expressed concerns about the possibility of Tajani being put forward as a replacement for Frattini.
Tajani, who leads Berlusconi's Forza Italia party in the European parliament, was described as ''very partisan'' by Watson.
