Rome: Italy's president accepted Prime Minister Romano Prodi's resignation on Wednesday following the government's defeat in a Senate vote on foreign policy.
Prodi, in power for nine months, went to the Quirinale (president's palace) after a cabinet crisis meeting.
President Giorgio Napolitano, the supreme arbiter of Italian politics, will hold talks with party leaders on Thursday to discuss the way forward.
Divided over the Afghan war and ties with the US military, Prodi's centre-left government was unable to secure enough votes for a motion backing Rome's foreign policy.
There was no constitutional requirement for Prodi to step down. But Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema had said before the Senate vote that the government should resign if it did not command majority support on foreign policy.
Napolitano's options include dissolving parliament and calling an election. He could also ask Prodi to form a new government or broker the formation of a different government, possibly involving technocrats.
The defeat was the most serious setback for Prodi's coalition government, also deeply divided over a host of domestic issues ranging from the budget, pension reform and a bill giving legal recognition to gay and unwed couples.
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