ROME -- Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is "likely to resign" Thursday morning to head off defeat in a vote of no-confidence in parliament, his spokesman Jas Gawronski said Wednesday.


Gawronski said there was still a possibility that Berlusconi, whose government has been destroyed by a no-confidence motion presented by the Northern League coalition party, could ask for a vote of confidence in parliament.


But he said the likelihood was that Berlusconi would briefly attend the parliamentary debate Thursday morning, call an immediate cabinet meeting "to say he is resigning" and then go to see President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to submit his resignation.


"That is the likely way events will develop," Gawronski said. He said the meeting at Scalfaro's Quirinale Palace could take place around midday.


Berlusconi launched a bitter attack on League leader Umberto Bossi in the Chamber on Wednesday, accusing him of betraying voters, and called for a snap general election if he is ousted.


Addressing parliament at the start of a rowdy debate expected to lead to his resignation, Berlusconi accused the League's abrasive leader Umberto Bossi of defrauding voters who elected their "Freedom Alliance" coalition only last March.


"Only a government wanted by Italians, and not built on machinations and stealing votes can complete the job we have just begun to carry out," the billionaire media tycoon said.


"If this governing majority falls apart, we must decisively and calmly go back to the voters and ask their opinion," he told the 630-member Chamber of Deputies (lower house).


Berlusconi, catapulted to power in the March elections in alliance with the League and the hard right National Alliance, later told reporters he would decide whether to resign after the parliamentary debate, which was scheduled to last for up to two days.


Berlusconi launched a fierce attack on federalist League leader Bossi, accusing him of sabotaging the government with a flood of criticism since its appointment last May.


"For seven long months, the honorable Bossi has sorely tried not only my patience but that of the whole government," the media magnate said.


Berlusconi supporters clapped and chanted "Italia, Italia" after the prime minister's 30-minute speech.


Bossi has sponsored a no-confidence motion in Berlusconi's government with the opposition centrist Popular Party.


Two similar motions have been presented by the main leftist opposition parties in a drive to oust Berlusconi and replace his government with a broad-based administration of institutional reform to lead Italy out of its current crisis.


They want to draw up new voting rules and curb rights of television ownership to halt what they say has been Berlusconi's abuse of his private media for political ends.


"You're not the state ... I ask what right do you have to bang your fists on the table saying that you cannot be replaced," Bossi told the Chamber in a reply to Berlusconi.


Even Berlusconi loyalists admitted the government was in its death throes.


"There is no alternative but to go back to the polls. Italians must know that within a few weeks general elections will have to be called," National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini said.