AMID accusations from the Left that he is moving towards a dictatorship, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, called yesterday for his trial in Milan to be suspended while parliament amended the Constitution to give MPs immunity from prosecution.

Signor Berlusconi, who is on trial for alleged bribery of judges in a privatisation in the 1980s, denied that he was trying to shield himself from embarrassment during Italy’s forthcoming presidency of the European Union and said that he was acting in the national interest. “We must intervene, but not to help me as Prime Minister to pass the test of our EU presidency,” he said.

On Monday, Signor Berlusconi set off a political explosion by appearing in court in Milan for the first time to answer corruption allegations that previously he had dismissed as unimportant. Yesterday he said that the removal of parliamentary immunity, as part of the Tangentopoli anti-corruption drive a decade ago, had been a mistake, because it had exposed politicians to politically motivated legal action.

In a letter to Corriere della Sera, Signor Berlusconi said that his moves were “not in the name of my alleged personal interests, but in those of the nation. A section of the judiciary is using its powers not to administer justice but to attack and eliminate those it considers its political opponents.”

Francesco Rutelli, leader of the centre-left Opposition, said that Italy risked “becoming a regime”, the term used in Italian for Mussolini’s dictatorship.

The Prime Minister, who has had a series of corruption charges quashed in court or overturned on appeal in recent years, clearly believed that the latest attempt to convict him over the 1985 privatisation of a food conglomerate would also peter out. Many Italians accept the Prime Minister’s contention that left-wing magistrates have singled him out for “persecution”. Signor Berlusconi was elected two years ago, despite well-aired allegations and the threat of further trials.

But Signor Berlusconi was alarmed by the conviction last week of one his inner circle on similar charges and adopted the risky strategy of taking on his enemies just as Italy is about to take over the EU presidency, on July 1.

In his letter to Corriere della Sera, he said that an elected Government had the right to govern without being impeded by “politically motivated” judges.

La Repubblica described Signor Berlusconi as a megalomaniac who belittled magistrates and journalists who criticised him.

Il Giornale, part of Signor Berlusconi’s media empire, said that it was pro-Left judges who were attempting a “coup” and Signor Berlusconi who was defending democracy.

After the allegations that Signor Berlusconi and Il Giornale made this week against Romano Prodi, formerly Italy’s centre-left Prime Minister and now President of the European Commission, Signor Prodi said yesterday that he would not sue Signor Berlusconi for defamation and that their co-operation during Italy’s EU presidency would not be affected.

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