Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government on Tuesday won the first round of a parliament confidence vote retaining, as expected, its majority in the upper house Senate, DPA reported.
A confidence motion tabled by the centre-right government was approved with 162 votes for and 135 against.
However, a much closer race was expected in a later vote in the lower house Chamber of Deputies where a group of rebel conservative parliamentarians have indicated they will support a no-confidence motion tabled by the opposition.
Defeat in either house would force Berlusconi to resign.