(by Denis Greenan).

(ANSA) - Rome, July 30 - House Speaker Gianfranco Fini on Friday blasted Premier Silvio Berlusconi for throwing him out of the People of Freedom party (PdL) he co-founded two years ago.

Fini rejected Berlusconi's demand he step down as Speaker but stressed his new 'Future and Freedom for Italy' caucus would vote with or against the government according to whether it upheld the PdL's electoral promises and "the general interest".

The caucus has been set up within the centre-right camp but if 27 of its 33 House members were to vote against the government, it would go under. Reiterating pledges to fight for a more "ethical" approach to politics, Fini claimed the PdL's defence of graft-linked MPs had "too often meant an expectation of impunity".

Two PdL ministers and an undersecretary have resigned since May in probes into alleged graft and a supposed influence-peddling cabal.

Another undersecretary is facing a no-confidence vote while PdL national coordinator Denis Verdini resigned from his bank but has refused to stand down.

All deny wrongdoing and have been backed by Berlusconi, but not Fini. Some observers think it was Fini's call for Verdini to quit that was the final straw for Berlusconi, sparking Thursday night's PdL censure motion that accused Fini of trying to "demolish" the party and "systematically attacking" the premier.

Fini said he was outraged that he had not been given the opportunity to defend himself.

"Last night, in two and a half hours, without being able to give my views, I was effectively expelled from the party I helped found," he said.

The Speaker called it "an ugly page in the history of the centre right and Italian politics in general".

The demand to quit as Speaker, he argued, reflected "a less than liberal conception of democracy" and "a business logic, such as that between a CEO and a board of directors, which has nothing to do with our institutions".

"I thank the many citizens who in these difficult hours have shown me their solidarity," he said, vowing to fight for "national cohesion, social justice and legality".

"Legality in the fullest sense of the word, that is fighting crime as the government is meritoriously doing but also public ethics, sense of State and playing by the rules".

Fini's new caucus has so far recruited 33 members in the 630-seat House and ten in the 315-seat Senate.

Although it could bring the government down by voting with left-wing and centrist opposition parties, it is highly unlikely to do so, parliamentary sources said.

But key votes could be much tighter, they added.

'WE'LL SHARPEN OUR WITS' SAYS KEY GOVT ALLY.

A Berlusconi ally said the government might face rough waters but would manage to last till the end of the legislature in 2013.

"I'm convinced that despite the problems in the PdL, the government still has a majority and the capacity to complete the legislature," said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a heavyweight in the Northern League party which is Berlusconi's key coalition partner.

"We'll have to sail without a set course more than we've done so far but the fewer (parliamentary) numbers available will force us to sharpen our wits and remain alert and on our toes," said Maroni.

"We'll be more committed. I'm optimistic," said the minister, noting that despite its comfortable parliamentary majority the government had been defeated several times over the last two years.

'TOO MANY LEAKS TO FLOAT', OPPOSITION SAYS.

But the opposition claimed the government now had too many leaks in its boat and could no longer stay afloat. "You can't hope to stay afloat with so many leaks in a boat," said Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who suggested a caretaker government should be formed to take the country to general elections.

The PD leader also likened the government to a dying patient being kept alive by artificial respiration.

"It's always hard to say how long artificial respiration can last but the government is no more...we've got to face reality".

The PD would back a caretaker government tasked with approving a new electoral law and pushing through economic and social measures to help the country out of the economic crisis, said Bersani.

RONCHI, URSO, BUONGIORNO AMONG FINI SUPPORTERS.

European Affairs Minister Andrea Ronchi, Junior Economy Minister Alfredo Urso and House Justice Committee Chair Giulia Buongiorno are among the most prominent former PdL members sticking with Fini.

Buongiorno, a lawyer, gained a high media profile with her defence of seven-times premier Giulio Andreotti on mafia charges and, last year, of US exchange student Amanda Knox on charges of murdering her British flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia.

Berlusconi has ruled out sacking Ronchi, who has been active in defending Italy's position in the EU, or Urso, who holds the foreign-trade brief at the industry ministry.

Actor Luca Barbareschi and former neo-Fascist diehard Mirko Tremaglia, a successful campaigner to get voting rights for Italian abroad, were also among the 43.