Rome  - Italy's second-biggest governing coalition party, the Alleanza Nazionale, was set formally to dissolve itself Sunday and fuse with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia as a new People of Freedom (PDL) alliance including the right-wing Lega Nord.

"We won't be disappearing," the party's acting president, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, had told 1,800 delegates Saturday as the party's final two-day convention went ahead before next week's planned fusion.

Gianfranco Fini, leader of the party since its foundation in 1995 and current of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, was due to announce the formal dissolution of the party that has campaigned under the former Fascist Fiamma Tricolore symbol combining Italy's national colours in the form of a flame.

Observers said the feeling among delegates was mixed - some eagerly anticipating fusion with Berlusconi's party, others regretting what amounted to a Forza Italia takeover.

La Russa stressed in his address Saturday that the spirit of the party would live on as "the right wing of the new PDL, continuing to practise the right values."

The Alleanza Nazionale had been founded in 1995 from remnants of the neo-Fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano, or Italian Social Movement. dpa