ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, fighting for his political life and seeking to quell an internal rebellion in his centre-right coalition, will ask parliament on Thursday for a confidence vote that will allow him to continue governing.

Berlusconi, who is under pressure by Italy's president as well as the central bank governor to prove that he can deal with the country's myriad social and economic problems, is due to address the lower house at about 0900 GMT.

The confidence vote is expected to be held sometime on Friday and Berlusconi will most likely win.

But most analysts say he will also emerge so bruised that it will be only a matter of months before a new crisis hits and that the country will likely hold early elections next year, a year before they are next scheduled.

"It's either counter-attack or die," said Il Foglio, a political broadsheet which reflects Berlusconi's thinking.

In his address, Berlusconi is expected to stress that there is no alternative to his government, that a crisis now would be irresponsible at a time when the economy is under huge pressure from the markets, and that he intends to govern until 2013.

Opposition parties have already announced that they will boycott the speech but then return for the debate and vote against Berlusconi on Friday.

Berlusconi decided to address parliament after the coalition -- wracked by internal dissent -- suffered a major embarrassment when it failed to pass a routine budget provision on Tuesday.

A number of centre-right deputies were absent for the vote, a fact which infuriated Berlusconi and fed suspicions that some dissenters stayed away to send a message to the prime minister about the deep malaise within the coalition.