Alfano rebuffs Berlusconi's attempts to woo him back

Interior minister says media mogul must enable electoral reform

(ANSA) Rome, July 22 - Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday he won't consider mending fences with former premier Silvio Berlusconi so long as the media mogul is bent on sabotaging the government's electoral reform bill.

"Forza Italia speaks beautiful words but what we need are facts," said Alfano, whose conservative New Center Right (NCD) party splintered from Forza Italia (FI) when he fell out with Berlusconi over his former political godfather's refusal to relinquish the leadership of Italy's centre right. Berlusconi is trying to re-assert his leadership of conservative forces in Italy after burnishing his sleazy image by winning an appeal case last week that quashed his conviction for having sex with an under-age Moroccan prostitute nicknamed "Ruby the Heartbreaker".

"There is an electoral law under immediate discussion and we will see if Forza Italia will vote (against) a law to kill the allies," Alfano added. "No meeting between me and Silvio Berlusconi is planned -- let's see first how Berlusconi votes on the electoral law," Alfano told reporters on the fringes of a Parliamentary conference. Alfano also lambasted Berlusconi's allies in the separatist Northern League, saying "we are not going to sit down at the negotiating table with a racist, xenophobic and anti-European right-wing party". "Our ideas are very clear," Alfano added, "we have chosen to separate our destiny from that of Forza Italia not just for judicial reasons, and an acquittal is not enough to unite us".