Crown Prince Philibert has never set foot in Italy

An amendment to the constitution is now being debated in the senate where the ruling coalition holds a comfortable majority, and a vote is expected in September.

The Savoy royal family was banished from Italy due to its collaboration with Mussolini's fascist regime, but public opinion has become increasingly favourable to the royals' return, providing they swear allegiance to the republic.

Collaboration

The lower house of parliament passed the amendment in 1998, but it has been bogged down in the senate ever since.

King Victor Emmanuel III, who abdicated in 1946, signed into law the race laws which led to the deportation of thousands of Jews.

The president sent his condolences on the death of Maria Jose Savoy

His son, Umberto, took the throne for just 27 days before fleeing the country. The same year, Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy.

Italy's constitution banned Umberto, his male descendants and their consorts from entering the country.

His son, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, now aged 64, was only nine when he fled the country with his parents.

The crown prince, Emmanuel Philibert, has never set foot in Italy.

Thaw

When the last queen of Italy, Maria-Jose, died earlier this year, the then Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said he hoped the family would be able to return.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi sent his condolences to Victor Emmanuel and received an unprecedented reply addressed, "Dear President" - the first time a royal had used the title.

The thaw in relations between the Savoys and the republic comes as exiled royals across Europe have started to return to their homelands.

Last month, ex-King Simeon II of Bulgaria was sworn in as the country's prime minister.

He fled the country as a child and led a successful career as a Madrid-based businessman before returning in 1996.

And in Yugoslavia, the Karadjordjevic family was recently granted permission to move back into its ancestral palaces.

Crown Prince Alexander has been living in Serbia since the government restored his citizenship in March.