Tensions in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition, his falling popularity and clashes with the country's president and parliamentary head are dangerous signs the government may be headed to a crisis.

Most worrying for the fate of the government, say analysts, is the latest dissent by Gianfranco Fini, the powerful speaker of the lower house of parliament and a co-founder with Berlusconi of the People of Freedom coalition.

Fini, who has often criticised what he says is a lack of freedom of speech in the coalition, is firmly opposed to Berlusconi's attempts to rush through a law that would limit the use of wiretaps by police and punish media that publish them.

Fini, whose faction in the coalition controls about 50 parliamentarians, thinks the law should take a back seat until a a 25-billion-euro ($30.6 billion) austerity package is passed.

Tensions have probably never been higher in the centre-right bloc, although few analysts expect the government to collapse before parliament's summer break in August.

Italian politics is "a situation that is not really tranquil", Berlusconi, 73, told state television in an interview yesterday.

In an editorial in the leading Corriere della Sera newspaper, Francesco Verderami wrote: "Berlusconi understands that he is in a corner, because the risk of a government crisis over the wiretap law is right around the corner."

All major newspapers, including those that are usually cheerleaders for Berlusconi's centre right, were pessimistic yesterday, saying the political temperature has risen sharply.

Libero, a newspaper close to Berlusconi, said that he was "furious" over Fini's latest outbursts. It said they showed that the People of Freedom coalition, formed two years ago by a fusion of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and Fini's conservative National Alliance, "doesn't exist any more".

Fini said on Thursday that resistance to the bill by anti-Mafia prosecutors meant the ruling majority should consider reworking it.

Berlusconi says the new rules are needed to protect privacy. The opposition and magistrates says his real aim is to stop more leaks of judicial wiretaps that have got him and some of his ministers into trouble.

Fini also blasted Berlusconi over his shock appointment late last month of Aldo Brancher, an ex-executive in Berlusconi's Fininvest media empire, as "minister for federalism", a new post no one expected.

One of Brancher's first acts was to take advantage of a law giving ministers the right not to attend trials where they are defendants. The move raised suspicions that that was behind the appointment in the first place.

"I don't want there to be even the whiff of suspicion in the party I belong to that someone was made a minister just to help him avoid trial," Fini said.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who Berlusconi has criticised before because of his communist past, jumped into the fray.

In an unusually blunt comment, Napolitano said the prime minister's office was not listening to his warning that the wiretap law was a minefield. He indicated that he may not sign it if it reaches his desk in its current form.

An editorial in La Repubblica said the president's words were "a serious warning to the government" that the outcome of a clash among branches of government was "unpredictable".

The crunch comes as Berlusconi's attempt to pass an austerity budget has met resistance not only from unions and ordinary citizens but also from members of his centre-right coalition as well as from mayors and regional governors.

The measures, which unions and the opposition say bleed workers and spare the rich, include a salary freeze for state employees, higher motorway tolls and steep cuts in funding for regional governments. – Reuters