Pat Dollard | Young Americans

ROME (AP) - A key ally of Premier Romano Prodi pulled his party from the Cabinet on Monday amid a corruption scandal, sending the center-left governing coalition scrambling to keep the administration from falling.

Prodi, who presided at strategy talks Monday night, planned to address Parliament about the crisis Tuesday. Taking a break from the talks, a senator in Prodi’s coalition hinted to reporters that the premier could call for a confidence vote by lawmakers.

Prodi “will put the crisis in the hands of Parliament,” said Sen. Roberto Manzione.

A vote of confidence would be a big gamble by Prodi to see if the threat of the government’s collapse after 24 months in power could inspire his long-squabbling coalition partners to close ranks and back him. That appeared unlikely.

Prodi also could offer his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano, who as head of state could dissolve Parliament and call new elections.

The government had been shaky for months, but the announcement Monday by the leader of a tiny Christian Democrat party that it was pulling out of the coalition appeared to be the push that could topple it.

Clemente Mastella, who resigned last week as justice minister after being put under investigation in a corruption probe, said he was pulling his UDEUR party out because he did not feel support from all the coalition members.

“We are leaving the coalition,” Mastella said. “I will not negotiate, I will not discuss. It’s over.”

UDEUR had been key to Prodi’s survival in the Senate, the upper chamber of the legislature, where the party’s three votes helped government supporters maintain a slim one-seat majority.

At a news conference, Mastella said the governing coalition was “finished” and called for early elections.

“If there will be a confidence vote, we will vote against” the government, Mastella said.

The center-right opposition, led by Silvio Berlusconi, the former premier defeated by Prodi in 2006 elections, already had been clamoring for a new election.

“The crisis was already evident,” Berlusconi said. “Now it’s indispensable and urgent to once again let the citizens have their say.”