The World - News from July 9, 1989

Veteran Christian Democrat Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti will be asked to try to form a new Italian government, a statement from the presidential palace said. It said Andreotti, 70, had been summoned to the presidential palace today, where President Francesco Cossiga was to name him prime minister-designate. The statement followed a day of consultations by Cossiga with all political parties in an effort to solve Italy’s seven-week-old government crisis. Outgoing Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita, whose five-party government was brought down May 19 by the Socialists, told Cossiga on Thursday that after three weeks of efforts he had been unable to resurrect the old coalition.