Mr Prodi and the cabinet are due to be sworn in shortly.

There a number of ex-prime ministers on his team, including Massimo D'Alema, who has been named as foreign minister.

A vote of confidence in the new centre-left coalition government will be held in both houses of parliament at a later date.

The coalition narrowly defeated Silvio Berlusconi in April elections, five years after the centre-right bloc came to power.

Mr Prodi's mandate to govern was delayed by the election of a new president.

Correspondents predict Mr Prodi will face a tough time with a razor-thin majority of just two seats in the Senate.

But he told reporters outside the presidential palace in Rome his coalition cabinet was a "team, not a collection of individuals".

"The government team is very united and much more compact than any previous description led to believe," he said, in a broadcast live on Rai News 24 TV.

"It is a team, not a collection of individuals, it is a team of ministers."

Timing

Mr Prodi also commented on the timing of his appointment to prime minister for a second time.

"It is rather bizarre being appointed 10 years after the very day when I was appointed prime minister for the first time," he said.

"Much has changed, I was prime minister for two-and-a-half years and head of the European Commission for five-and-a-half years. So, I have had much experience."

Mr D'Alema, who belongs to the biggest party in the coalition, will hold one of two deputy prime ministerial posts as well as the foreign affairs portfolio.

The other deputy prime minister post goes Francesco Rutelli, who will also be culture minister.

Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, a former European Central Bank executive board member, will be economy minister and former Socialist Prime Minister Giuliano Amato was named interior minister.

The defeated Mr Berlusconi says his conservative coalition "will be ready to profit, democratically, from the weakness" of Mr Prodi's government.