Rome, Nov 19 (IANS/AKI) Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has ruled out a general election and said his government was ’solid’.

In a statement which followed days of mounting tension within Berlusconi’s conservative ruling coalition, he said the parliament would serve its full term.

‘I am astonished at the proliferating reports claiming there will be a snap election. I have never entertained any such idea,’ he said.

‘The mandate we received from voters was to govern for five years. And we intend to complete this mandate with determination – for the good of the country.

‘The ruling coalition is solid, irrespective of any internal dialectic which can only strengthen its ability to produce ideas,’ Berlusconi said.

The premier’s remarks came after Italy’s Senate speaker Renato Schifani stated Tuesday: ‘The parliament must enact the programme of the government. If this fails to happen, elections must be called.’

Tensions have emerged in the ruling coalition over a controversial bill introduced this month in the parliament that would shorten the length of trials and let at least 100,000 suspects off the hook over the next two years.

Two trials in which Berlusconi is accused of tax fraud and bribery are among those that would be ‘timed out’ by the bill. Berlusconi and his supporters claim the bill will reform Italy’s notoriously show and cumbersome system of justice but critics say its real aim is to solve his legal problems.

Italy’s lower house of parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini last week gave crucial but reluctant backing to the bill.

But Wednesday he said: ‘We cannot adopt the principle that in an alternating parliamentary democracy, each ruling majority changes the rules to please itself.’