Italy's Berlusconi struggles to keep party united

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By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italian center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi is struggling to control his divided party ahead of a meeting on Saturday that could confirm a deepening split in its ranks and threaten the stability of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's fragile coalition. After months of tension between rival factions, the congress, which will seal the rebranding of Berlusconi's People of Freedom group (PDL) into Forza Italia, the name of his original political movement, could be the moment that decides the future of the party. With frantic meetings and telephone calls still underway on Friday, a truce could be patched up before it comes to a showdown, but the tensions have underlined the instability still threatening Italy despite an uneasy truce following Berlusconi's failed attempt to bring down Letta's government last month. Berlusconi, facing near-certain expulsion from parliament after his conviction for tax fraud in August, has demanded that PDL ministers quit the government where they have shared power with Letta's center-left Democratic Party since last February's deadlocked election.




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