Silvio Berlusconi is likely to step down as Italy's prime minister on Saturday, as the country engaged in a desperate race against time to calm frenzied market speculation on its 1.9 trillion euro public debt.

From the BBC: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has described himself as the most persecuted person "in the entire history of the world". Mr Berlusconi also said he was "the best prime minister we can find today". In an impassioned statement, he then mistakenly told reporters he had spent millions of euros on "judges", before correcting himself to say "lawyers". Look, Silvio. There are plen...

Italian prime minister Berlusconi's equal opportunities minister Mara Carfagna (pictured) – a former topless model – is suing over claims that the 32-year-old got her job as minister by performing oral sex on Mr Berlusconi. Carfagna's relationship with Silvio Berlusconi is ununusual - he said in 2007: "If I was not already married I would have married her immediately." Carfagna says the rumour...

The behaviour of the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi provokes outrage. But secretly says Max Davidson most men are rather envious.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was in amiable mood at Downing Street this afternoon, saying he is building a good relationship with Gordon Brown.

I'd like to tell Berlusconi to go to hell but as that's clearly where he's [allegedly] going anyway, there's little point: Silvio Berlusconi has demanded an apology from his wife after she accused him of "consorting with minors" and said she wanted a divorce. The Italian prime minister, 72, told the Corriere della Sera that he did not think their marriage could survive. Veronic...

By Anne Penketh As Silvio Berlusconi celebrated his electoral victory today he declared: "I am very different from the prime minister I was in 2001." You're dead right there Silvio. Just look at his hair: we all knew he had...

Senior members of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition have questioned the prime minister's claim that he still commands a majority in parliament

Silvio Berlusconi was not Angels' choice for Prime Minister of Italy. But he was for most Italians - indeed he has enormous support, from the mid-fifties percent acknowledged by La Repubblica (the Guardian of the Italian press) to the over seventy percent claimed by Berlusconi himself. Wherever the figure lies, Mr Berlusconi has an absolute and undisputed majority. Despite popular belief to the co...

After being in thrall to Silvio Berlusconi for 17 years, Italy now faces life without him. And it will not be easy, says Tim Parks.