A FULL-BLOODED Italian political row echoed across Europe yesterday as the Italian Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission traded accusations of corruption.

In court and the Italian media Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi, champions of the Right and Left respectively, are determined to discredit each other ahead of what is expected to be a dramatic confrontation in Italian elections due in two years’ time.

The row raises the prospect of an uncomfortable six months for the European Union, with the likelihood of the two men clashing during Italy’s presidency of the Union, which begins on July 1.

Signor Prodi and Signor Berlusconi are due to meet at the Salonika summit on June 20, as Italy prepares to take over the EU presidency from Greece. A breakdown in trust between the European Commission and the country holding the presidency would make it almost impossible to conduct business.

Signor Berlusconi’s lawyers presented a court in Milan yesterday with renewed claims by a businessman, which they said showed that Signor Prodi had acted illegally in a business transaction. Il Giornale, the Milan newspaper that is part of Signor Berlusconi’s media empire, gave a page to the allegations.

Signor Prodi’s office in Brussels issued a rebuttal. Signor Prodi said that he was not a party to the Milan case, or any other, and had nothing to hide. He would “not usually have any reason to intervene”, but had never avoided his duty to “give an open and complete account of my actions”.

On Monday Signor Berlusconi unexpectedly criticised Signor Prodi during his appearance in court in Milan, where he is on trial for alleged bribery of judges in the privatisation of a state-owned food company in the 1980s.

Signor Berlusconi said that in 1985 he had been asked by Bettino Craxi, then the Prime Minister, to step in as part of a consortium with the food companies Barilla and Ferrero. The aim was to prevent Signor Prodi, who was then chairman of IRI, the state holding company, selling off the food giant SME at a “below-market” price to Buitoni. Buitoni was owned by Carlo de Benedetti, a rival entrepreneur.

In an editorial Corriere della Sera said that the revival of the antagonism between Italy’s foremost statesmen could not have come at a worse time. Signor Berlusconi, who came to office two years ago after soundly defeating the Centre Left, has previously attacked the country’s magistrates via his lawyers for their “left-wing bias” in conducting a “witchhunt” against him.

Giving the impression that he had more important matters to attend to, Signor Berlusconi had claimed until this week that he had as much chance of being convicted as he had of “becoming a communist”. As a last resort, he had hoped to reintroduce parliamentary immunity, which was abolished in 1993.

Aides said, however, that Signor Berlusconi was shaken last week by the conviction of Cesare Previti, one of his lieutenants, in a parallel corruption trial in Milan. Signor Previti was given an 11-year sentence, subject to appeals.

An incandescent Signor Berlusconi told advisers that he now realised that there was a real possibility that he, too, would be sentenced. He vowed to go on the offensive to avoid being brought down by corruption charges, as he was in 1994.

His lawyers have called 1,800 witnesses, including many of Italy’s most senior politicians, in what La Repubblica called a threat to “bring everyone else down with him”.

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