'Fazio affair' meeting set for coming week

"We didn't discuss the central bank today," Berlusconi said after a meeting Friday of several top ministers. "The cabinet will talk about the matter on Aug. 3."

Calls for Fazio to resign are growing following the publication on Wednesday 27 July of wire-tapped phone conversations showing he had unusual private telephone conversations with Banca Popolare Italiana Scarl Chief Executive Gianpiero Fiorani.

Fazio called Fiorani after midnight on 12 July to say that he had personally signed an order authorizing Popolare Italiana to proceed with a costly EUR8 billion bid for Banca Antonveneta SpA.

"We are neither for or against Fazio, but for the well-being of our Republic", the leader of the Union centre-left coalition, Romano Prodi, said.

Prodi reiterated that some changes are needed, such as the duration of the Governor's tenure.

"When the centre-left is in power there'll be no revenges nor punishments" Prodi said in an interview with Repubblica Radio "but a real regulation. I have often raised the issue of the life-long tenure of the governor, but there's nothing personal in it: this issue and control over banks are general problems that we should have dealt with before".