The local health authority of Udine on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for a woman trapped in a vegetative state to end her life at a clinic within its jurisdiction in accordance with a landmark right-to-die ruling.

Announcing the authority's decision, the city's Quiete Clinic said 38-year-old Eluana Englaro was now on a waiting list for a clinic in Udine to come forward and allow medics to remove her feeding tube.

The Quiete Clinic, which announced last week that it was considering offering to help Eluana end her life, said it was still weighing up the legal ramifications of coming forward.

''The authority's decision does not mean that the Quiete has given its own green light to accommodating Eluana. We will make a decision by the weekend,'' said the clinic's deputy head, Luciano Cattivello.

Cattivello added that if the clinic agrees to take Eluana, it would take ''a series of days'' before the supreme court sentence could be carried out.

Eluana has been in a permanent vegetative state for 17 years following a car accident.

Beppino Englaro, who has fought for more than a decade for a dignified end to his daughter's life, has yet to find a clinic prepared to carry out November's supreme court ruling, which has split Catholics and libertarians in the country.

On Monday a regional court overruled a decision by the Lombardy region, where Eluana is cared for by nuns at a Lecco clinic, to refuse to make clinics or health workers available to help her end her life.

Lombardy Governor Roberto Formigoni said Tuesday he was considering appealing the decision.

So far the only offers to accommodate Eluana have come from clinics in Udine, in the Friuli Venezia-Giulia region.

The city's Citta' Clinic was the first to come forward in December, but later withdrew its offer over fear of reprisals after a last-minute guideline from Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi stated that the removal of feeding tubes from patients in a vegetative state was ''illegal''.

Observers have stressed that Sacconi's guideline does not apply in Eluana's case because of the definitive court ruling.

Piedmont Governor Mercedes Bresso said last week that her region would also be prepared to allow Eluana to die ''if it were asked''.

Constitutional Court President Giovanni Maria Flick on Wednesday added to calls for a law on living wills, which allow people to stipulate what medical treatment they want in the event they later become unable to make a decision themselves.

There is currently no legislation governing living wills in Italy, where the topic is particularly controversial due to strong opposition from the Catholic Church.

The President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, also called for a law and hit out at magistrates for ''intervening'' in the absence of legislation.

Following the court's landmark decision on Eluana Englaro, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said a law on living wills could not be delayed any longer.

Health Undersecretary Eugenia Roccella has said that Italy should have a law by spring.