ROME, Feb 6: Italy on Wednesday set snap elections in April that will probably return conservative media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi to power after he torpedoed efforts to overhaul the country’s unpopular voting system.

President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament with “regret,” having hoped that an interim government could be set up to reform an electoral law that is blamed for the political instability that brought down the government of centre-left leader Romano Prodi after only 20 months in power.

The polls, set for April 13-14, will come just two years after Prodi defeated Berlusconi in the closest election in Italian history.

Prodi, 68, was quick to confirm his exit from the political stage, passing the torch to the younger Walter Veltroni, the 52-year-old mayor of Rome and head of the newly formed Democratic Party.

“I’ve decided not to stand, in order to open the way to a change of generation, which is needed. Someone had to set the example,” Prodi said in an obvious swipe at the 71-year-old Berlusconi.

The Milan billionaire’s upcoming face-off with Veltroni will make a change from three previous duels between him and the professorial Prodi, both of them now former prime ministers twice over. New elections became inevitable after the failure of attempts to form an interim government to amend the voting system, which allows tiny parties to obtain seats in parliament with minuscule shares of the vote.—AFP