Italian Socialists resist Communist overture

Italy's coalition government breathed easier as the Socialist Party decided not to leave the government. Socialist leader Bettino Craxi indicated the time was not ripe for the country's left-wing forces to form an alliance to end Christian Democratic domination of political life. He was responding to an appeal by Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer for the two parties to develop a ''democratic alternative'' to government by the Christian Democrats.