(BRUSSELS) - Italy will lose the coveted justice slot at the European Commission if Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini resigns to join the new Italian government, the EU's executive arm said in a statement Tuesday.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso plans to install Jacques Barrot, the man who temporarily replaced Frattini during campaigning for the Italian elections, permanently to the job.

Barroso would take this step, the statement said, "in order to fully ensure the coherence and effectiveness of the complex and sensitive work in the justice, liberty and security portfolio."

In recent months, Frattini has been locked in tortuous negotiations with the United States to try to win visa-free US travel for all of the 27 EU nations, and has even battled with some countries that wanted to conduct talks alone.

The commission statement said that were he to resign, Italy could take responsibility for the transport portfolio, which is currently held by Barrot, a Frenchman.

It underlined that Barroso can "reshuffle" his cabinet of commissioners as he pleases throughout the EU executive's term of office, which is set to end next year.

Frattini, one of five commission vice presidents, requested unpaid leave for the Italian campaign from his 51st birthday on March 14 until April 14, and later extended this to April 28.

He is now set to become Italian foreign minister in the new cabinet of incoming conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Frattini must resign from his Brussels job for the process of naming a successor to begin, but if he does so on April 28, the task of naming the replacement would fall to Italy's caretaker Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

However Berlusconi is known to be keen to choose Italy's next EU commissioner, and Barroso -- a conservative -- has already angered the Italian left by extending Frattini's period of leave.

Barroso is known to covet a second term at the head of the commission, but to do so he will need the support of all EU heads of state and government.

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