Italy’s new technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti has agreed not to run as a candidate when elections are held, Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right PDL party, said in an interview published on Sunday. “We asked him and all his ministers to commit themselves publicly to not presenting themselves as candidates at the next elections,” the former prime minister said. Berlusconi said Monti had agreed to the request in the presence of the Italian president, adding he had not spoken to each individual minister in his government.