(AFP) – Feb 9, 2008

ROME (AFP) — Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi kicked off his election campaign Saturday, calling for a single liberal party -- his own -- to dominate parliament after the April election.

"Italy, stand up!" said Berlusconi at a rally of hundreds of supporters in a theatre in the northern city of Milan, launching what will be his fifth election campaign. He said the phrase would be his new campaign slogan.

"We need to be guided by the interests of the country and consolidate in Parliament a single, large liberal political force," added the 71-year-old billionaire who controls an extensive media empire.

Berlusconi has traded his Forza Italia party for the newly announced People's Party for Freedoms (PDL), which will include the smaller right-wing National Alliance and the Northern League.

On Saturday, Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, announced her small far-right party also would join the PDL.

By trying to form a single, over-arching conservative party, Berlusconi marks a break from the political coalitions that have marked Italian politics in the past.

It is strategy some analysts say is risky but better reflects the aspirations of the Italian electorate.

"We're the novelty of this election," said Berlusconi, dismissing efforts by his leftist rival, Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni and head of the recently formed Democratic Party (PD), to cast himself in that role.

In his speech, Berlusconi sought to taint Veltroni's party by association with the outgoing centre-left prime minister Romani Prodi, whose government collapsed after only 20 months in power.

"The PD supported the Prodi government which opened the door to illegal immigrants, (compromised) citizens' security, increased crimes and taxes," he Berlusconi.

"Prodi has failed," he added.

Veltroni, 52, has renounced the normal centre-left alliance with the radical left in the election, to held on April 13 and 14.

His party is the largest on the left, a merger of the Democrats of the Left and the centrist Catholic Daisy party launched last October.

On Wednesday, President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament after failing to negotiate an interim government to reform the electoral law, blamed for the political instability that brought down Prodi's government.

Political leaders on the left and the right and left have said they want to end the political coalitions that have marked Italian politics in recent years, in a bid to make the country more governable.

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