Italy's PM Draghi prepared to stay on if parties get behind him

ROME (Reuters) - Mario Draghi said on Wednesday he was prepared to stay on as Italian prime minister if the parties in his broad coalition threw their weight back behind him.

"Are the parties and you parliamentarians ready to rebuild this pact?" Draghi said in a speech to the upper house, adding that was what Italians were demanding.

Draghi had tendered his resignation last week after the populist 5-Star Movement refused to back the coalition in a parliamentary confidence vote but President Sergio Mattarella rejected the resignation.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante; Writing by Keith Weir, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia)