Rome

ITALIAN Prime Minister Matteo Renzi faced calls to resign on Friday after one of his ministers was forced to quit over allegations that she tweaked the country's 2015 budget to suit her businessman boyfriend.

Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi stepped down on Thursday, hours after it was announced that her partner, Gianluca Gemelli, was under criminal investigation for abusing his connections to the centre-left government in a suspected bid to help his engineering company win contracts with French oil group Total.