ITALY/IRAQ: Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday found himself at the centre of a bitter political storm after he apparently backtracked on an earlier announcement that Italian troops would start withdrawing from Iraq in September.
On a TV chat show, Porta a Porta, on Tuesday evening, Mr Berlusconi had indicated that a gradual withdrawal of Italy's 3,000-strong contingent in Iraq might begin in September.
In a letter to the daily Il Foglio on Wednesday, the prime minister repeated the message, indicating that it was a case of "mission accomplished" for Italy in Iraq and adding: "Italy can start discussing with Baghdad authorities and our coalition allies the possibility of a gradual withdrawal."
On Wednesday both President Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair had reacted to Mr Berlusconi's comments by stressing there had been no change in the long-term plans of the coalition allies.
Mr Blair told the House of Commons: "Neither the Italian government nor ourselves have set some deadline for withdrawal."
Perhaps in response to those remarks, Mr Berlusconi told reporters on Wednesday evening he had been misunderstood and had never set a fixed date for withdrawal.
He added: "It was only my hope . . . If it is not possible, it is not possible. The solution should be agreed with the allies."
Mr Berlusconi's apparent change of tack prompted bitter criticism yesterday from the centre-left opposition and media commentators.
"Bush and Blair Stop Berlusconi," read the front-page headline in La Repubblica.
Corriere della Sera proclaimed: "Bush and Blair Put A Brake On Berlusconi", while adding in an editorial: "In a serious country, heads of government cannot lend themselves to ambiguous announcements on life-and-death issues . . . The current and future credibility of a country's foreign policy can only be severely damaged by such self-serving calculations."
Centre-left leaders, already annoyed that Mr Berlusconi had made his original withdrawal remarks on TV and not in parliament, were further infuriated yesterday when the prime minister wrote to Pier Ferdinando Casini, speaker of the lower house, saying he had nothing new to tell the house.
Speaking to reporters in Imperia, northern Italy, yesterday morning, Mr Berlusconi explained: "I have nothing to tell parliament. What do you want me to do, go into the house to report that nothing has changed?
"There is no news. I haven't corrected anything.
"This whole case has been created by the disinformation of newspapers and media that have no intellectual honesty."
Mr Berlusconi's words failed to convince his centre-left critics, with Francesco Rutelli, leader of the Margherita party, commenting: "We're just amazed because, for once, it had seemed to us that Berlusconi had got something right, re the gradual withdrawal of the troops and the involvement of the international community in Iraq.
"Yet, now he has gone and withdrawn his withdrawal, just as soon as he got a clip on the ear from President Bush."
Many commentators linked the confusion created by the prime minister's remarks to local, rather than international, political considerations.
Mr Berlusconi was speaking just 10 days before key regional elections, widely seen as a trial run for next year's general election.
Furthermore, the timing of his TV statement on Iraq would seem to have been influenced by the death earlier this month of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, killed in Baghdad by US forces just after he had obtained the release of kidnapped Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena.
Italian public opinion was overwhelmingly opposed to the US-led invasion of Iraq and continues to be opposed to Italy's military presence there.
In the wake of the death of Mr Calipari, that opposition has intensified.
At the end of a difficult day, Mr Berlusconi was last night facing a fresh government crisis following the resignation of minister for institutional reforms Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League, frustrated at the slow parliamentary progress of a league-sponsored bill of federalist reforms.