Italy’s Foreign Minister Steps Down

Italy’s foreign minister resigned Saturday after a spat with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the government’s lukewarm reception of the euro currency.

Renato Ruggiero’s resignation was likely to spark concerns among other European nations since he had been seen as lending credibility to the billionaire media mogul’s administration and as balancing some of its right-wing or anti-European Union ministers.

Berlusconi’s office said Ruggiero, 71, and the prime minister agreed on a “consensual” parting.

Tensions between Ruggiero and Berlusconi flared last week after the foreign minister publicly criticized the government’s handling of the euro’s Jan. 1 launch and some anti-euro comments by several of Berlusconi’s top ministers.

Berlusconi fired back, telling the Rome daily La Repubblica on Friday that he alone directed Italy’s foreign policy, not Ruggiero. He said Ruggiero was merely a “technical” functionary carrying out his policies.

Some blame the government’s less-than-enthusiastic welcome of the euro in part for Italy’s slow start in converting to the currency.

On Saturday, EU officials reported that Italy was lagging behind much of Europe in using euros for cash transactions.

The resignation was the first in Berlusconi’s 7-month-old conservative government.

The Italian news agency ANSA said Berlusconi would likely take over as interim foreign minister and appoint a replacement in the coming days.

Opposition politicians immediately condemned as “disastrous” Berlusconi’s handling of the crisis and said the prime minister had given into the whims of his right-wing coalition members. They also demanded an emergency debate in Parliament over the resignation.

Berlusconi is mistrusted by many European politicians, and the international standing of Ruggiero --a former president of the World Trade Organization, longtime diplomat and international banker--was seen as a reassurance.