L''Aquila (Italy), Apr. 8 : Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has advised traumatised earthquake survivors to view living in emergency tent accommodation as like being on a "camping weekend".

His statement is unlikely to go down well with an estimated 17,000 people who have been made homeless by the powerful earthquake which struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy on Monday, with many of them enduring freezing temperatures in tent cities put up by the army, reports The Telegraph.

Rome, Apr. 6 : A furious Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has threatened to take action against journalists for reporting his latest gaffes, involving British Queen Elizabeth II and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Berlusconi has accused newspapers and television stations of slandering him and damaging the country''s reputation by highlighting his alleged faux pas.

He said he was considering taking "hard measures" against reporters, without specifying what that might entail, reports The Telegraph.

Rome  - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has dismissed criticism of his government's economic policies during protest in Rome involving hundreds of thousands of workers, students and pensioners.

"It is impossible to speak and reason with the deaf," Berlusconi said in Prague late Saturday, where he was attending a US-European Union summit.

Berlusconi also disputed that 2.7 million attended Saturday's protest, a figure claimed by the organizer, Italy's largest labour union confederation, the leftist CGIL.

Kehl, Germany  - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday snubbed a ceremonial walk by NATO leaders on a bridge across the Rhine River because he was busy on the phone.

Televised images of the event showed Berlusconi getting out of his car while intent on a conversation on his mobile phone. He then gestured to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would salute her later, and continued with his call while other leaders gathered on the bridge for a group photo.

Berlusconi later rejoined the group for a second photo and apparently apologised to Merkel.

Rome - The co-founder of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's new party restated Monday his dissent with Berlusconi's plans to change Italy's constitution, including more powers for the premier, regardless of the views of the country's opposition.

Gianfranco Fini, speaker of parliament's lower house Chamber of Deputies, was commenting on remarks made by Berlusconi on Sunday at the People of Freedom party's opening congress.

London, Mar 27: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who last year referred to Barack Obama as “sun-tanned”, has returned to the same subject after he claimed the difference between their leadership styles was that he is ‘paler’.

The 72-year-old made the comment to a reporter who compared the two leaders and their handling of the economic crisis.

It so happened that a journalist commented that his response to the global economic crisis made him seem like Obama, reports The Guardian.