(BRUSSELS) - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso is extending a leave of absence for vice president Franco Frattini, the EU executive said Monday.

Frattini, one of five commission vice presidents, had requested time off without pay for the Italian election campaign from his 51st birthday on March 14 until April 14, and later extended this to April 28 and now again to May 15.

"This extension follows a request by Vice President Frattini, who informed President Barroso that the political consultations for the nomination of the new Italian government were still ongoing," the commission said in a statement.

Loyal to Italian conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi, the Tuscan-born legal expert is set to return to Rome as his foreign minister.

Barroso has already decided that if Frattini leaves permanently he will be replaced by Frenchman and current transport commissioner Jacques Barrot at the head of the justice portfolio at the commission.

A new Italian commissioner is expected to be named to head the transport portfolio for the rest of current commission's tenure, which ends next year.

That would leave the new Italian commissioner in charge of reviewing a state loan for troubled Italian airline Alitalia, which the commission has doubts meets EU state aid rules.

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