Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi kept out of the spotlight as parliament in Rome approved the 48-billion-euro ($68 billion) austerity package aimed at averting a full-blown financial crisis.

But it was Berlusconi who had accelerated the adoption of the plan to signal to financial markets that the world's eighth largest economy was serious about staying out of the debt crisis engulfing Europe.

Italy's lower house of parliament passed the measure by 316 votes to 284, after the Senate, or upper house, approved the bill on Thursday by an equally narrow margin of 161 to 135.

Aware of the gravity of the situation, the country's center-left opposition, which opposed much of the package, refrained from delaying the parliamentary process following repeated appeals in the past week by Economic Minister Giulio Tremonti to rally around the austerity measures.

Agreement reached in record time

In what business daily Il Sole 24 Ore called an "absolute first," the government and opposition parties set aside differences to pass the austerity measures in a matter of days.

The rapid political accord helped calm the massive sell-off of Italian assets at the start of this week, but yields on Italian 10-year government bonds before the vote climbed to about 5.7 percent and spreads over benchmark German bonds rose above 300 points.

The austerity measures call for cutting the deficit to 0.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product by 2014, from 4.6 percent last year, and include curbs in spending for things like hospital fees and other public services. Italy has one of the world's highest public debts at 120 percent of GDP.

Italy's central bank governor and president-elect of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, has warned however that the measures now adopted need to be supported by structural reforms to the economy to stimulate growth.

Analysts have also warned that Italy's stagnant economy and tensions within Prime Minister Berluscioni's coalition government are potential risks, but have dismissed the prospect of the country requiring a bailout.

Author: Gregg Benzow, David Levitz (dpa, AFP, dapd, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Illmer