Italian prime minister Letta to step down

Decision comes after PM Democratic Party supported a call by its leader Matteo Renzi for a more ambitious government .

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has announced he is to resign after his own Democratic Party voted against his leadership, with 39-year -old party leader
Matteo Renzi now expected to replace him .

Letta plans to submit his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday after less than a year at the head of an
uneasy left - right coalition and just as Italy is beginning to emerge from a painful recession.

Members of the centre- left Democratic Party' s governing directorate voted 136 in favour and 16 against a motion requesting
a change of government submitted by Renzi in a dramatic climax to a weeks -long feud with Letta , the AFP news agency reported.

Renzi called on the Democratic Party to back a new "radical programme " and a government that could last until the end
of the legislature in 2018.

Italy cannot live in a situation of
uncertainty and instability . We are at a crossroads. Matteo Renzi , Democratic Party leader "Italy cannot live in a situation of uncertainty and instability . We are at a crossroads," Renzi told a meeting of the Democratic Party 's 140 - strong leadership committee.
The party thanked Letta , who only came to power in April, for his "positive work"vbut called for "a new phase with a new executive ".
Ever since being elected to lead the party in December, the ambitious and media - savvy Renzi has accused Letta of dragging
his feet on crucial political reforms, and failing to do enough to combat rampant unemployment.

Letta will now hold his final cabinet
meeting on Friday , then formally submit his resignation to Napolitano who will have to name someone to replace him , with Renzi virtually certain to be his pick.

A new cabinet could be in place by next week , following a round of formal consultations with political parties hosted by the nominee for premier.

In the space of just a few days, a
possibility that Renzi himself and top party leaders had excluded until very recently could take shape and Renzi could
become the youngest government leader in the European Union.