Brussels - European Union leaders are heading for a deal on making a pledge to cut greenhouse-gas emissions legally binding, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday.

But the proposed compromise would be disastrous for world efforts to stop global warming, seriously damaging the EU's own credibility, environmental group WWF said in a statement.

"We are heading towards a deal. Italy is obtaining everything it requested," Berlusconi told journalists on the fringes of the EU's year-end summit in Brussels.

London, November 19 : The Italo-German summit in Trieste saw Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi playing a practical joke on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Media reports suggest that Berlusconi slipped away from the welcoming committee, and hid behind the lamppost.

Trieste, Italy  - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel favour a possible partnership between German airline Lufthansa and ailing Italian carrier Alitalia.

"We both view very favourably a collaboration between Alitalia and Lufthansa. In fact we hope it will occur," Berlusconi said during a joint news conference with Merkel in Trieste.

Earlier Tuesday Italy's top financial newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, reported that a private Italian consortium, CAI, which is in the process of purchasing the state's controlling stake in Alitalia, was on the verge of clinching a deal with French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM.

Trieste, Italy - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi began hosting German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a day of talks Tuesday, with the current global economic crisis expected to feature high on the agenda.

The discussions, taking place in the north eastern Italian Adriatic Sea port of Trieste, were to be followed by a joint news conference scheduled for around 1430 GMT.

Ankara - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is due to arrive in Turkey on Wednesday where he will take part in an intergovernmental summit. The topic of Turkey's European Union accession process is expected to top the agenda.

"Our goal is to reiterate Italy's support for Turkey's EU membership and to commit to helping Turkey to overcome whatever obstacles it faces," Italian ambassador to Turkey Carlo Marsili told the Anadolu news agency ahead of the visit.

The half-day intergovernmental summit is to take place in the Aegean city of Izmir.

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in talks Tuesday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, relaunched his proposal to expand the Group of Eight (G8) to include emerging nations from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

To date, most members of the G8 - which includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia - have reacted lukewarmly to the proposal. Berlusconi next year plays host at the group's scheduled summit in Italy.