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.