Italy ruling parties exploring ways to avoid confidence vote - sources

Some parties in Italy's ruling coalition are negotiating to try to avoid a confidence vote in the upper house on Thursday which could trigger the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government, political sources told Reuters. The two sources said that they were working to allow lawmakers to vote on the single articles of the stimulus package rather than on the decree as a whole, but this would mean the 5-Star Movement withdrawing any amendments it had proposed.

The 5-Star has warned it would not vote on the decree, a decision that prompted calls for an early national election from other coalition parties.