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ROME : Italy's new conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to give his maiden address to parliament on Tuesday with his right-wing cabinet lineup nearly completed.
The flamboyant media tycoon, who won a convincing election victory in April, is expected to breeze through votes of confidence in the two chambers of parliament on Wednesday and Thursday.
Late Monday, Berlusconi added 37 under secretaries to the 21-member team he unveiled last week.
On his third stint as prime minister, Berlusconi's slimmed-down cabinet includes several familiar faces while shifting considerably to the right.
The new government includes Franco Frattini, who left his post as European Union justice commissioner to become foreign minister, and Berlusconi's old ally Giulio Tremonti has returned to the economics ministry.
Umberto Bossi, head of the anti-immigration Northern League party, will be a minister without portfolio charged with reforms, a post he has held before under Berlusconi.
Italy faces major economic and social problems, including the future of national airline Alitalia, the longstanding wealth gap between north and south, and the battle against organised crime.
Five of the new under secretaries have economic dossiers, news agencies said.
Only Berlusconi's deputy prime ministers remain to be named.
The team is expected to be completed when the cabinet holds its first formal meeting next week -- in Naples, to underscore a vow to resolve the region's chronic waste disposal problems.
Under a law passed late last year, the size of the cabinet shrank considerably.
The government of centre-left leader Romano Prodi, which lasted two years until January, had a record 103 members, including 26 ministers. Berlusconi's 2001-06 team numbered 99.
- AFP /ls
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