PITTSBURGH — Mayor Luke Ravenstahl endorsed the findings of a study committee that has recommended the city merge with Allegheny County.

The task force chaired by University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg made three major recommendations in a 25-page report released Thursday.

The city and county should have "zero tolerance" for duplicating government services; the governments should forge a "formal cooperation compact"; and local leaders should lobby the Legislature for permission to put a merger referendum on the ballot as soon as possible, the report said. Voters in the city and county would have to separately approve the merger.

The 13-member committee spent 17 months studying the merger question.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato has long pushed for a merger, but Ravenstahl had expressed reluctance until a news conference announcing the report's findings.

Ravenstahl said he had doubts about a merger until he realized that incremental changes he has tried to make to streamline city government weren't enough to deal with decades of population loss and economic decline.

"I believe we need bold, decisive and far-reaching change to fundamentally alter (the region's) trajectory," Ravenstahl said.