The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo d'Alema, appeared to pave the way for the return to Italy of the disgraced former Socialist prime minister, Mr Bettino Craxi, saying yesterday that he had "nothing against" such a return, as long as it was on "humanitarian grounds".
Mr Craxi (65), who has received two definitive convictions for corruption within the ambit of "Bribesville" scandals that rocked Italy in the early 1990s, was admitted to the intensive care unit of a military hospital in Tunis on Monday night, suffering from cardio-respiratory problems. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Tunisia since May 1994.
Mr Craxi, who was the leader of the Italian Socialist party at a time when it claimed 12 per cent of the national vote, was prime minister in two successive governments between 1983 and 1987. Along with the seven times prime minister Mr Giulio Andreotti, he was widely considered the most influential power-broker of his day.
His career was abruptly halted by the "Tangentopoli" investigations of the early 1990s which wiped out the ruling Christian Democrat and Socialist political guard, caught up in accusations of illegal party financing.