Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will hand in his resignation on Tuesday after a morning cabinet meeting to inform his ministers, following criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Italy was the first European country to face the full force of the pandemic early in 2020 and has the sixth-highest death toll worldwide as more than 85,000 Italians have died with COVID-19.

Three regions have been ordered back into near-lockdown as new cases spiked and a national vaccination program was dealt a blow when pharma giant Pfizer said on January 15 it would delay shipments of doses.

The cabinet is convened for 9 a.m. (0800 GMT), at which Conte "will inform his ministers of his intention to resign. He will then go to see President Sergio Mattarella," the cabinet office statement said.

The prime minister, who has been in office since June 2018, hopes President Sergio Mattarella will give him a mandate to form a stronger new government with broader backing in parliament, according to senior government sources.

Conte lost his majority in the upper house last week, when the centrist Italia Viva party led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi quit the coalition in a row over the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis and economic recession.

Italy has had 66 governments since World War II and administrations are regularly ripped up and then pieced back together in tortuous, behind-the-scenes talks that open the way for cabinet reshuffles and policy reviews.

However, once a prime minister resigns, there is no guarantee that a new coalition can be timely formed, and early elections might end up as the only viable solution.

Conte's resignation comes ahead of a vote on judicial reforms later this week, which lawmakers in his coalition warned he would face defeat.

Shortly before his resignation, the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement, the largest coalition group, reiterated its support for him.

The prime minister has led two very different successive governments.

Before presiding over a center-left coalition, where Five-Star Movement and the Democratic Party are main components, Mr. Conte headed a coalition between Five-Star Movement and the far-right League, whose leader Matteo Salvini was reported to be pulled out in a failed bid to force elections, for 15 months.

(With input from Reuters)