ROME, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - Italy's conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that if elected in this month's elections he would bring back his old ally Giulio Tremonti as economy minister, the ANSA news agency reported.

Berlusconi, tipped to return to power for a third time in the April 13-14 polls, said he would also be 'favourable' to renaming populist right-wing leader Umberto Bossi to the reform ministry, ANSA said.

'The only name that is certain is that of Giulio Tremonti, the master of the previous government's economic policy,' Berlusconi said.

Tremonti, a former law professor, was Berlusconi's economy minister for most of the conservative leader's last term in 2001-2006.

Now 60, Tremonti was sidelined for 14 months by right-wing National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi's main ally, in a power struggle that erupted in the midst of the Parmalat corruption scandal.

After Bossi, head of the Northern League, told the weekly Panorama that he would accept the reform portfolio, Berlusconi said on Tuesday: 'As far as I am concerned, if he wants to come back to this ministry, I have a favourable opinion.'

Bossi, 66, whose populist and xenophobic party seeks greater autonomy for the north of Italy, had to quit as reform minister after suffering a heart attack in 2004.

Berlusconi was to tell Italian television on Tuesday that his government would have 60 members including ministers, deputy ministers and secretaries of state, according to an advance transcript carried by ANSA.