ITALIAN PREMIER SILVIO Berlusconi has survived a confidence vote in the Italian parliament today, after a number of fringe members of his coalition fell into line to give him a narrow victory.

Berlusconi survived the vote by 316 votes to 301 – enough to give him an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies – to overcome what was being billed as the biggest threat to his political survival since he first took power in 1994.

The victory came despite the last-minute declaration from three of his MPs that they were deserting him – a move which had suggested that Berlusconi could lose the motion, a defeat which would have forced him to resign from power.

That last-minute threat had followed a boost for the 75-year-old Berlusconi, when former minister Claudio Scajola – who had quit Berlusconi’s cabinet and formed a rival faction against him – said he would be prepared to vote for the incumbent premier.

In the end, he survived with the support of an absolute majority of the 630 MPs – a total which wasn’t constitutionally needed, but which fastens his grip on power for the time being.

Every vote counted in the tense division, which took well over 90 minutes to complete = because the voting system required each MP to walk through the chamber’s division lobby in alphabetical order, in two sets: one set in favour of the motion of confidence, the other against.

Such was the pressure on each individual MP to vote, that one MP hobbled across the division lobby in crutches and with his leg in a cast.

The manner of his win means that Berlusconi can fend off calls of his resignation, which grew after the parliament rejected last year’s budget in a vote this week.

Those calls will remain, however, with the BBC reporting that many Italians still believe a general election will be called before spring – over a year before the premier’s five-year tenure comes to an end.

The government had lost that electronic ballot by just one vote – a fact made all the more frustrating by the fact that Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister, was 30 seconds late and missed his opportunity to vote.

Berlusconi has steadfastly hung onto power, even as his leadership has been weakened by personal sex scandals that have even brought thinly veiled criticism from Pope Benedict XVI.

In addition, the media magnate faces four criminal trials and Italy’s increasingly precarious financial position. Three ratings agencies have downgraded Italy’s public debt, citing Italy’s political gridlock as a key reason.

The cost of borrowing for the Italian government fell on the news of Berlusconi’s victory, though it remained above 5.8 per cent – its highest price since early August.

The stock market in Milan was poised to end the day up by around 2.8 per cent as markets embraced the apparent

Additional reporting by AP