Italian President Giorgio Napolitano officially resigned from office, Rome's Quirinal Palace announced on Wednesday.

The 89-year-old is Italy's longest serving head of state. He signed his resignation papers on Wednesday after nine years in office. The parliament now has two weeks to find a replacement.

Senate speaker Pietro Grasso was slated to act as temporary president until a new head of state is chosen. Just over 1,000 national and regional lawmakers are scheduled to start voting on it within two weeks. A two-thirds majority in both the upper and lower houses in the first three rounds of voting will be needed to choose Napolitano's successor.

Speculation is rife on who will replace Napolitano. Possible candidates to take over Napolitano's role include former Prime Minister and former European Commission President Romano Prodi, as well as former Prime Minister Giuliano Amato.

"There are no names at the moment, but some that have been dropped in the press could be candidates," Laura Garavini, a lawmaker from the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) told DPA news agency.

'Long and tormented' presidency

Two years ago Napolitano reluctantly agreed to start a second seven-year mandate, after parliament could not agree on a successor, but warned he would not last a full term.

In a December 31 farewell speech, he described his years in the presidency as "long and tormented." On Tuesday, he said he was "happy to go home" and described the presidential Quirinal Palace as "very beautiful" but "a bit like a prison."

Napolitano, a long-time member of the Italian Communist Party, was first elected president in 2006 as a member of the Democratic Party of the Left. He agreed to serve a second term in 2013 in order to break a parliamentary deadlock that followed the 2013 general election.

The Italian president has the power to appoint prime ministers, dissolve parliament and call early elections.

sb/kms (AFP, Reuters)