Italy's centre-left appears to be closing the gap on Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition in the run-up to an April 13-14 election, an opinion poll published yesterday showed.

The IPR poll, released by the left-leaning La Repubblica daily on its website five days after elections were called following the collapse of Romano Prodi's centre-left government, gave the centre left between 45.5 and 46 per cent of the vote.

Mr Berlusconi's bloc would get between 49.5 and 51.5 per cent depending on whether the centrist UDC party heeds the media tycoon's call to join his coalition.

The centre-left's flagship Democratic Party (PD) led by Walter Veltroni, who is Mr Berlusconi's main rival for the post of Prime Minister, was credited with 29-30 per cent of the vote.

That compared with 37-40 per cent for Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, which groups under a single banner his former Forza Italia and the right-wing National Alliance.

The poll, published the day after Mr Veltroni and Mr Berlusconi hit the campaign trail, said the PD was slowly gaining ground from previous surveys where it was indicated at between 25 and 28 per cent of the vote. It also showed up to 30 per cent of voters were still undecided. Mr Veltroni, Rome's mayor, has pledged the PD will run alone in the election to avoid being associated with the constant coalition bickering that brought down Mr Prodi.

Commentators say Mr Veltroni's risky solo strategy appears to have paid off so far, although he would still have to strike alliances of some sort to stand a chance against the centre-right.

The poll said an alliance between the PD and the centrist IDV, led by outgoing Infrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro, would win 34 per cent of votes.