The centre-left opposition, which had governed 11 of the 13 regions up for grabs, held on to seven of them but was banished from Italy''s wealthy industrial north, results from the March 28-29 elections showed on Tuesday.

The coalition of 73-year-old Berlusconi, who is two years into a third term ending in 2013, won in six regions and avoided the heavy mid-term defeat suffered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy this month, despite a record low turnout.

The centre-right even won control of the Lazio region which is home to the Italian capital Rome, overcoming an embarrassing bureaucratic mix up in registering its candidates.

But it was the North League, a strong advocate of fiscal federalism and regional autonomy, which emerged as the clear winner of the vote, taking two regions for the first time.

It won the northern region of Veneto as expected, becoming the region''s biggest party, but also edged ahead of the centre left in Piedmont and closed the gap with Berlusconi''s People of Freedom (PDL) party in Lombardy, Italy''s industrial heartland.

The centre left, trounced by Berlusconi in the national election in 2008 and testing its fourth leader in two years, managed to hang on to its strongholds in central Italy and parts of the south.