ROMANO PRODI, Italy’s new centre-left Prime Minister, began to demolish the legacy of Silvio Berlusconi on his first day in office yesterday, vowing to bring home the country’s 3,000 troops from Iraq and calling the war there “a grave error”.

In a stormy Senate debate before a confidence vote, Signor Prodi said that he proposed to withdraw Italy’s troops, “in consultation with our allies”, but gave no timetable. The US-led invasion had “complicated” rather than resolved the security situation by giving terrorists a base and “new excuses”. Signor Prodi added that he would “consolidate and enrich” Italy’s relations with Washington, and remain “on the front line” against terrorism.

But he had to raise his voice to be heard over jeering and whistling from centre-right senators. Although polls suggest that most Italians are against the war and occupation, Signor Berlusconi, Signor Prodi’s centre-right predecessor and a staunch ally of President Bush, sent 3,000 troops to Iraq in “peacekeeping roles”. Signor Berlusconi, narrowly defeated in last month’s election, had already pledged to withdraw the troops by the end of the year.

Signor Prodi, however, is under presure from the hard Left, which forms a key part of his fragile coalition, to pull them out immediately. He also criticised Signor Berlusconi’s economic record, saying that the economy needed “a strong shake-up”. He repeated his election promise to cut labour costs and tackle tax evasion, and vowed to “review” the so-called Biagi law, which makes it easier for employers to hire and fire and introduce short-term contracts.

He said that investment in infrastructure would “depend on the funds available”. Alessandro Bianchi, the Transport Minister, and Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, the Environment Minister and Green leader, said that this meant the scrapping of a planned €4 billion (£3 billion) suspension bridge linking Sicily to the mainland. The Greens and the Left have long opposed the project on ecological grounds and in the belief that construction funds would be diverted to the Mafia.

Signor Prodi hinted, however, that a controversial new rail link though the Alps from Turin to Lyons, which the Greens oppose, would go ahead. He is also said to be planning to repeal measures passed to help Signor Berlusconi to evade corruption charges, including the decriminalisation of false accounting and the blocking of trial evidence from foreign bank accounts, and is under pressure to dismantle or “slim down” Signor Berlusconi’s TV empire through a “conflict of interest” law.

The Left also wants legal recognition for gay civil unions and an easing of restrictions on fertility treatment, moves strongly opposed by the Right and the Vatican. Signor Prodi is expected to overturn the electoral system of proportional representation, rushed through by Signor Berlusconi in the mistaken belief that this would help the Right, returning Italy to the mixed system of “first past the post” and PR voting.

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president