Rome, Nov 21 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Italy's new government led by technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti will govern until the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2013, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has said.

But neither Monti nor his ministers will run as candidates when elections are held, Berlusconi said Sunday.

"We asked him and all his ministers to commit themselves publicly not to present themselves as candidates at the next elections," Berlusconi told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Monti, a former European Union commissioner, was appointed prime minister Nov 16 after the resignation of the 75-year-old Berlusconi, who stepped down after parliament approved new austerity measures demanded by the EU to help trim Italy's massive 1.9-trillion-euro debt.

Berlusconi, leader of the People of Freedom party, which holds the biggest representation in parliament, however, warned that if Monti took measures that were against the line of the parties supporting him, in particular a possible wealth tax, he would be unable to go forward.