Brussels - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday refused to apologise for calling US president-elect Barack Obama "sun-tanned."

The outspoken premier was approached at a European Union summit in Brussels by a US journalist, who had asked him to say sorry for offending Obama with the racial slur.

"It is you who should be apologizing to Italy," an angry Berlusconi retorted before abandoning a press conference midway.

Rome - Oops he's done it again.

Barely 24 hours had passed since Barack Obama's election win and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was, it seems, unable to resist making an unfortunate quip on the US president-elect's racial background.

The 72-year-old, three times Italian premier, had initially greeted Obama's election triumph in almost avuncular terms.

He would, he said, offer the 47-year-old US president-elect "some advice given my age and experience."

London, November 7: Gaffe-prone Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has given rise to a fresh controversy by praising U. S. President-elect Barack Obama’s suntan.

The entrepreneur, while on a Moscow visit, said last night that Obama was “young, handsome and tanned”.

His comment drew a lot of criticism.

“What’s the problem? It was a compliment. If these people don’t have a sense of humour why don’t they just...” British tabloid The Sun quoted him as responding to his criticisms.

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi envisages a "continuing friendship" between Italy and the US under president- elect Barack Obama, and could assist him in improving US relations with Russia, the premier's spokesman said Wednesday.

Berlusconi - a personal friend of outgoing President George W Bush, whose military intervention in Iraq he backed - would have no problem adapting to the new Democrat president, spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti told Italian state radio.

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government won Wednesday final parliamentary approval for controversial education reforms, against which thousands of students are staging protests around the country.

The Italian Senate, the upper house of parliament, approved the decree by 162 votes for to 134 against with three abstentions.

News of the decree's approval was greeted with jeers of "Clowns! Clowns!," by students staging a sit-in outside the Senate's Palazzo Madama building in central Rome.

Protests are expected to culminate in a strike Thursday called by Italy's main labour unions.

Brussels - Russia should be allowed to join the European Union in the coming years, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday.

"I consider Russia to be a Western nation. So my project is that the Russian Federation should become a member of the EU in the coming years," Berlusconi told Italian reporters on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels.

Berlusconi's comments on Russia's EU aspirations were not new, but they nevertheless raised eyebrows in Brussels.