Berlusconi "wants more EU influence", targets ECB

Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday he would help the EU regain the influence he said it had lost since he was last in power and called for the European Central Bank's mandate to be broadened.

Speaking on one of his own television channels after winning Sunday and Monday's election, 71-year-old Berlusconi said the EU needed a "top leadership squad" to 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 conservative media mogul, who is expected to take office next month.

In comments that could anger some of Italy's European Union partners, for whom ECB independence is sacrosanct, Berlusconi said its mandate should be widened beyond keeping inflation in check. He did not specify exactly what he meant, but in the past he has urged the central bank to support economic growth.

Rules set out in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty give the ECB the powers to pursue its primary goal of maintaining price stability free of political influence.

"I believe the ECB's functions need to be widened beyond the power to control inflation," he told a news conference, adding that any such change had to be decided jointly by EU countries.

Berlusconi had said during the election campaign he wanted to "intervene" with the ECB and would discuss it with leaders such as France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel.

Sarkozy has repeatedly called for action to curb the sharp rise in the value of the euro, while Germany has vigorously defended the ECB's independence from politicians.

Berlusconi often blames the euro for the underperformance of Italy's economy, echoing the opinion of many Italians who say their spending power has waned since they gave up the lira. Exporters complain the strong euro makes them less competitive.

ISOLATING ITALY

In his second term as premier from 2001-2006, Berlusconi was accused of isolating Italy within Europe by concentrating on relations with the United States, Russia and Israel.

Romano Prodi, who beat him in the 2006 election, tried to refocus on Europe in his 20 months as premier. But the former European Commission president was forced out of office in January when his centre-left coalition collapsed.

Berlusconi famously made the sign of the cuckold behind a Spanish minister's head at a summit photo call, and shocked the European Parliament in July 2003 by likening a German lawmaker to a concentration camp guard.

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

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

Seen as a staunch ally of Washington in its "war on terror", Berlusconi said 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 on Thursday.

Berlusconi said he would set up a commission to assess the budget situation that his government would inherit from the centre-left to make sure there were "no surprises".

His record on running Italy's public finances has been questioned by economists and ratings agencies. A decline in Italy's public debt was reversed during his last government, and it is now the third highest in the world in absolute terms.