Cabinet pullout weakens Berlusconi

ROME, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Four ministers quit the Italian Cabinet Monday, putting Silvio Berlusconi's rule in danger and elections closer, politicians said.

Gianfranco Fini, a former ally, pulled one minister, one deputy minister and two undersecretaries out of the Cabinet, The New York Times reported.

Fini, co-founder of Berlusconi's People of Liberty alliance, split with the prime minister in July, accusing him of undemocratic rule. That move cost the government its parliamentary majority.

At a meeting of his parliamentary group earlier this month, Fini, speaker of the Lower House and a former Fascist now seen as a moderate, vowed to withdraw his ministers if Berlusconi did not resign.

The government is expected to fall in a confidence vote yet to be scheduled. Politicians have said they expect the vote within weeks, after Parliament approves the 2011 budget.

After returning from the Group of 20 Summit in Korea, Berlusconi called for a confidence vote first in the Senate, where he has a slim majority, and then in the Lower House.

If he loses the votes, he will be forced to resign and early elections will be called.

Berlusconi's "glue no longer holds," La Repubblica newspaper said Monday in a front-page editorial.