Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema resigned late Saturday, after 14 months in power.
He says he has enough support to put together a new, stronger coalition government. Seven of the 11 parties that backed him before have already declared they will do so again.
The country's president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, has asked D'Alema to stay on until there's a political consensus on who should take over. The move requires a vote of confidence in both the upper and lower houses of parliament.
D'Alema is expected to be backed by a majority in the 315-seat Senate. But the vote in the 630-seat lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, will be much closer, according to pundits.
His old government was weakened by internal fighting over a wide range of policies -- from Italy's support of NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, to proposals to speed up pension reforms.
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