ROME - Italy was in political turmoil on Friday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi dramatically split with his one-time most powerful centre-right ally, putting the country at risk of early elections.

In a tense string of events that climaxed on Thursday night, Berlusconi accused Gianfranco Fini, the powerful speaker of the lower house of parliament, of being a traitor and conspirator and trying to administer a “slow death””to their party.

After months of tension and even open hostility between the estranged conservatives, Berlusconi’s party issued a tough document censuring Fini, saying his actions and comments no longer reflected the ideals of the party he helped found.

Berlusconi said the move would have no effect on the stability of his two-year-old government, even though Fini is believed to control the votes of about 50 parliamentarians.

“There is no risk,” Berlusconi told a news conference on Thursday night. “We have a majority.”

But Berlusconi could risk either losing his majority in at least one house of parliament or seeing it chopped down to a dangerous sliver of votes depending on the number of legislators loyal to Fini who form a new voting faction.

The coalition, made up of the People of Freedom (PDL) and the Northern League, needs a majority of 316 in the lower house. Before the split, it could count on up to 344 votes, including 14 from smaller parties who decide votes on an ad hoc basis.

But the new numbers could deprive Berlusconi of this comfortable cushion of nearly 30 votes, leaving him prey to whims of tiny parties or even demands from the Northern League, which caused the collapse of his first government in 1994.

The situation caused by the de facto implosion of the centre-right was unprecedented, with no institutional guidelines on the sequence of steps over the next few days or weeks.

Several commentators on Friday said Berlusconi told his aides that if there were enough defectors and “if they make our lives difficult,” he would prefer to hold early elections because he is convinced his party will do well without Fini.

Berlusconi said it would be up to parliamentarians to decide if Fini should remain as lower house speaker. Fini was due to make a statement at 1300 GMT.

Fini said he had no intention of resigning from the speaker’s role, which gives him enormous power to schedule debates and decide the pace of the legislative process.

BRUTAL BREAK-UP

Corriere della Sera said the way Berlusconi treated Fini was so brutal that the future would be “insidious”.

Commentators said if the political situation becomes untenable, President Giorgio Napolitano could appoint an interim government to run business until new elections, like an administration headed by former Finance Minister Lamberto Dini in 1995 after the collapse of Berlusconi’s first government.

Berlusconi has been locked for months in conflict with Fini, who was once considered his heir as leader of the centre-right.

The censure document, which was signed by all but three of the 36 members of the presidency of the PDL, rebuked Fini for positions it said were incompatible with the party line.

It accused Fini, who co-founded the PDL with Berlusconi two years go, of waging “political opposition””within his own party and of trying to administer a “slow death””to it.

It stopped short of expelling Fini from the party, although many newspapers said Berlusconi had “booted him out.”

Fini, an ex neo-Fascist, dissolved his own National Alliance party to merge it with Berlusconi’s Forza Italy after nearly 14 years of supporting him in three previous governments.

Opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani said Berlusconi should admit that his government was in a deep crisis and that the prime minister should address parliament.

Fini has enraged the prime minister by hammering away at the theme of morality and legality in government, and insisting that officials implicated in judicial investigations should resign.

He has also helped force Berlusconi to water down a bill limiting the use of wiretaps by magistrates that would also have strongly restricted press reporting of wiretap transcripts, a move critics say would hamper the fight against corruption.