BBC News with Marion Marshall

The Islamist party in Tunisia, Ennahda, is having coalition talks with two left-wing secular parties as official results are declared in the country's first free elections. The electoral commission confirmed that Ennahda was well ahead in the vote, but it's not expected to have an overall majority. Here's Pascale Harter.

The victory party at Ennahda headquarters has begun, and the official results of the election aren't even announced yet. But so transparent was the voting and the counting that political parties already know where they stand. Their representatives, international and national observers and even the press were allowed to witness the count. So Ennahda knows that it is the kingmaker but won't have quite enough votes to write Tunisia's constitution or form an interim government alone.

Urgent talks are continuing in Italy between the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party and his coalition partners to try to reach an agreement on financial reforms aimed at reducing the country's massive deficit. So far, Mr Berlusconi has been unable to convince his main partners, the Northern League, to accept measures demanded by the EU in time for the European summit scheduled for Wednesday. A spokesman at the European Commission, Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio, says Italy shouldn't feel insulted by the demands.

"It's not about challenging sovereignty; it's not about lecturing; it's not about humiliating. We have 27 democratically elected governments which have agreed on reinforcing surveillance, on having a higher degree of coordination of their economic policies. It makes sense. It's one of the main lessons of this crisis."