ROME (AP):

A key ally broke with conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi yesterday, saying he will run separately in the April elections.

Berlusconi, who is eager to gain back the premiership he lost in 2006 to the centre-left bloc, had tried in vain to persuade pro-Vatican Pier Ferdinando Casini to join his centre-right election alliance.

Casini, who heads the UDC party of former Christian Democrats, said in a speech that his party would run a campaign "with our own symbol and our own banner'' and that he was running for the premiership.

In breaking with Berlusconi, after 14 years of political alliance, Casini said he was giving the message that "not everyone in Italy is up for sale.''

Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, which he created in the early 1990s, is by far the largest conservative party, and opinion polls make the media tycoon and soccer team owner the clear front-runner in the elections.

But the 71-year-old billionaire's decision last year to form a new grouping called the Freedom People meant he had to pitch for renewed support from the allies he used to count on.

Berlusconi's main rival for the premiership is centre-left leader Walter Veltroni, who is likening his optimistic call for change in Italy to the "Yes, we can" campaign message of US presidential candidate Barack Obama.