'Marini will try to scale the mountain,' wrote the economic daily Il Sole-24 Ore. 'In reality there is no reasonable hope that he will succeed because the election campaign is already under way.'

Conservative flagbearer Silvio Berlusconi, at age 71 a two-time former prime minister itching to return to power and poised to win if polls are held soon, will not hear of enduring a time-consuming process to fix the voting system.

Mr Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, would be unlikely to fall into the same predicament that eventually brought down his arch-rival prime minister Romano Prodi a week ago: the proportional representation system gives undue weight to small parties, encouraging instability.

The left-leaning La Repubblica daily on Thursday was full of praise for cooler heads, saying Italy was 'in the hands of a wise, competent and expert President (Giorgio Napolitano)', while also voicing pessimism that Mr Marini, 74, will manage to set up a government that could win the confidence of parliament.

The widely respected Senate leader comes from the leftist Catholic Daisy party, which merged with the Democrats of the Left last fall to become the new Democratic Party, headed by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni.

Mr Prodi resigned as premier a week ago after losing a Senate vote of confidence, ending 20 months of government by his fragile centre-left coalition.

He lost his slim Senate majority after a small centrist Catholic party withdrew from his coalition last week.

It was Mr Berlusconi who pushed through the current electoral law shortly before the April 2006 elections, in a bid to minimise the extent of the expected centre-left victory.

The voting, entirely by proportional representation with a lower threshold to enter parliament, saw 22 parties win seats, with most of the tiniest on the left, resulting in an unstable coalition.

Mr Berlusconi is backed by his traditional allies, far-right National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini, and populist Northern League head Umberto Bossi.

Mr Marini, a former union leader, is known as a skilled negotiator.

But observers say his effort is doomed to fail, only delaying the inevitable - early elections - by a few weeks or months.

Most voters themselves are opposed to new polls under the current voting system, a recent survey found.

More than 800,000 people, well more than the requisite half a million, signed a petition for a popular referendum on electoral reform last year.

The constitutional court two weeks ago gave the go-ahead for the plebiscite, which must be held by June 15 - unless lawmakers manage to fix the system themselves first. -- AFP