Italian President Giorgio Napolitano Wednesday evening asked center-right coalition leader Silvio Berlusconi to form a new Italian government, the 62nd since the end of WWII.

Berlusconi broke with protocol and made history by immediately accepting and handing the president a list of ministers who will be in his new government.

Traditionally, a candidate asked to form a government accepts "with reservations," only to return several days later with his list and a decision to lift his "reservations."

Berlusconi's new government, which will be sworn in Thursday afternoon, will be composed of 12 full ministers and a dozen or so ministers without portfolio.

Napolitano took less than two days to consult with political forces represented in parliament, as well as his predecessors as head of state, before offering Berlusconi a mandate.

Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL), allied with the devolutionist Northern League, firmly won Italy's snap elections last month with majorities in both the Lower House and Senate.

This is the third time that the 71-year-old media tycoon has led a government. The first was a brief executive following the 1996 elections and the second his full-term executive from 2001 to 2006, Italy's longest government.

Berlusconi's PDL is a fledgling party created before the elections through the merger of his Forza Italia party and the right-wing National Alliance (AN).