Center-left leader Romano Prodi is set to beat Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Italy's general election, winning a majority in both houses of parliament, according to exit polls released yesterday.

A poll by the Nexus research institute predicted that Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 % of the vote in both the lower and upper houses of parliament.Berlusconi's center-right bloc was shown winning 45 to 49 % of the vote in both houses according to the poll, broadcast by state television RAI.

A separate poll by Piepoli, shown on Sky Italia television, showed former European Commission president Prodi winning 52 % of the vote in the lower house, to give it 340 of the chamber's 630 seats. It was seen winning around 167 of the 315 seats up for grabs in the upper house (Senate).

Berlusconi, Italy's richest man who created the country's biggest media empire, dominated the often ill-tempered election campaign with a string of outbursts, gaffes and last-minute promises to cut taxes.

But pollsters said his House of Freedoms coalition always faced an uphill battle to win over voters who felt the ever-optimistic Berlusconi had failed to deliver on pledges to revolutionize hidebound Italy and revive the economy. The Piepoli poll suggested the prime minister's own Forza Italia party had suffered a pummeling with support dropping to 21 %from 29.4 percent in 2001.

Prodi, 66, beat Berlusconi in a 1996 general election, but his government lasted only two years before it was brought down by disgruntled communist allies.Critics say any new government headed by the occasionally prickly Prodi will suffer a similar fate because of the gaping ideological divide within his multi-party alliance.But Prodi insisted throughout the campaign that his coalition could last a full five-year term, noting that unlike in 1996 his allies had signed up to a 289-page manifesto that will serve as a road map for any center-left government.