1ST LEAD EU parliament liberals reject alliance bid from Italy's populist M5S By Stefania Fumo, dpa

Rome (dpa) - The staunchly pro-EU Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) caucus in the European Parliament declined to join forces with Italy‘s eurosceptic Five Star Movement (M5S) on Monday.The populist Italian party had earlier decided to ditch its ties to the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party (UKIP) in favour of ALDE.A successful alliance would have given the M5S and its 17 MEPs more clout in the 751-seat parliament and made it the third-largest political force in the legislature, comedian and M5S leader Beppe Grillo had explained on his blog.However ALDE chief Guy Verhofstadt said there were "fundamental differences on key European issues" between the alliance and the party."There is insufficient common ground to proceed with the request of the Five Star Movement to join the ALDE Group," Verhofstadt, who leads 68 MEPs, said in a statement.But he added that both sides would continue working together on issues such as direct democracy, the environment and transparency.Over 78 per cent of the Italian party had voted for the movement‘s 17 MEPs to leave the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party (UKIP). The online vote took place at the behest of M5S founder and leader, comedian Beppe Grillo.The M5S had previously approached the Greens caucus but was rejected, Grillo said in his blog post.