Rome's embattled mayor, Ignazio Marino, resigned on Thursday in the midst of an expenses row and after facing mounting pressure in recent weeks from critics blaming him for the sorry state of the Italian capital.

"I have made my decision: I am handing in my resignation," Marino said in a statement addressed to the citizens of Rome, adding that he had lost the support of his own Democratic Party and that the "political circumstances" that would allow him to stay no longer existed.