Italy's Monti turns down Berlusconi offer to run


ROME (AP) -- Italian Premier Mario Monti is spurning Silvio Berlusconi's offer to run on a center-right ticket backed by the media mogul in February elections.

Monti told a news conference in Rome on Sunday that his predecessor's flipping back and forth between condemning the government's economic policies and then praising the premier convinced him that "I couldn't accept his offer."
