The Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi launched a broadside on the European Central Bank this afternoon, saying if it did not lower interest rates a political committee should be set up to help guide its decision-making.
The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi
"We have continuously asked and asked the European Central Bank to review its rates to reduce the euro-dollar exchange level," Mr Berlusconi said in comments ahead of European parliamentary elections later this week.
"If this does not happen, I think we should aim to have a political committee with government representatives to work alongside the Central Bank," Berlusconi said in an interview with weekly Gente magazine, released ahead of publication.
The ECB, which last week again kept its key interest rate unchanged at 2.0 per cent, declined to comment on his remarks in the general interest magazine, which some analysts said should be seen against the background of the elections.
Mr Berlusconi also lashed out at his arch rival, European Commission president and former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the man seen as responsible for Italy joining the euro.
"I think it was profoundly mistaken, what the Prodi government did, to make Italians believe that entering the euro would be the solution to all our problems," Mr Berlusconi said, repeating criticism that it had stoked inflation in the euro zone's third largest economy.