Berlusconi 'wants EU to regain global influence'

Rome: Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday said he would help the European Union regain some of the influence in international affairs that he said it had lost since he was last in power.

On one of his own television channels after his victory in Italy's parliamentary election on Sunday and Monday, the 71-year-old media tycoon said the EU needed a "top leadership squad" that would make it count in the world.

"There is a need to reconstruct a Europe that has a leading role in the Western world that can tackle with determination the problems facing the world," said the centre-right leader, who is expected to take office next month.

During his second term as prime minister in 2001-2006, Berlusconi was accused of isolating Italy from its EU partners by concentrating on relations with non-EU nations such as the United States, Russia and Israel.

Famous for once making the sign of the cuckold behind a Spanish minister's head at a summit photograph call, he also shocked the European Parliament in July 2003 by likening a German lawmaker to a concentration camp guard.

Berlusconi said on Tuesday he would now be "the oldest - sorry, I mean the wisest" at EU summits.

Good relations

Yesterday, he said he had maintained good personal relations with world leaders during his time in opposition.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had already invited him to London, he had had "a long conversation" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and had also spoken with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, he told Italian TV.

Seen as a staunch ally of Washington in its "war on terror", Berlusconi said US President George W. Bush had invited him to a dinner in the United States, though he did not specify a date.

Outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Berlusconi, Italy's third richest man and owner of AC Milan soccer club, at his villa in Sardinia today.

CIA rendition

Seeking testimony

The defence team of a former Italian secret services chief has requested Silvio Berlusconi testify in the trial of 26 Americans and others charged with kidnapping a terror suspect during a CIA operation, reports said.

Nicolo Pollari's defence also requested Romano Prodi as a witness, ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported. Berlusconi's testimony in the Milan trial was being sought to clarify which evidence might be protected as classified, the reports said.

The issue of classified documents has held up the trial for months awaiting a decision by Italy's highest court on whether the indictments improperly relied on state secrets as evidence. It is part of the Italian government's request to throw out the indictments.

Berlusconi is considered a key witness because he was PM when an Egyptian cleric was abducted from a Milan street in February 2003. The kidnapping was allegedly part of the CIA's so-called extraordinary renditions programme, moving terror suspects from country to country without public legal proceedings.