Italian PM Letta to seek confidence vote on Wednesday

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said he would go before parliament on Wednesday for a confidence vote after ministers in Silvio Berlusconi's center-right party pulled out of his government at the weekend. Letta said he wanted to avoid elections under the current widely criticised voting system which he said would produce more stalemate but said there were signs that dissenters in Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party could support him in a confidence vote. "I hope that there is a part of the PDL which is not in accord with Berlusconi," he told RAI state television. (Reporting by Alessandra Galloni and James Mackenzie)