Romano Prodi claims victory in Italian elections, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is contesting, Italian TV reports

Italy: Prodi claims poll victory

Berlusconi contest challenger's claim, says his party won Senate

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian opposition leader Romano Prodi claimed victory Tuesday for his center-left coalition in parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was contesting the claim.

Appearing before a large crowd of supporters outside his party headquarters in Rome, Prodi said early Tuesday that his party had taken control of the lower house of Parliament by winning 340 of 630 seats.

Berlusconi -- who has ruled the country for the past five years with a large majority in Parliament -- disputed that claim, saying that his center-right coalition won control of the 315-seat upper house, the Senate, by one seat.

Still, power there could shift because six of the Senate seats are to be allocated to Italians who live abroad, and those ballots have not yet been counted.

In the lower house, the margin of victory was around 25,000 votes, a tiny fraction of the 47 million Italians eligible to vote.

The tiny margin gives the center-right coalition of Berlusconi the chance to ask for a recount. His spokesman, Paolo Buonaiuti, told Italian television that Berlusconi would do just that. >>>cont

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