As one of Europe's most active diplomatic players, Ilkka Kanerva, the Finnish Foreign Minister, frequently reaches for his Nokia to mediate in world affairs. Indeed, his phone never stops ringing.

Then there is the underwear crisis, for which his phone is, apparently, equally useful. According to the Finnish tabloid Hymy, Mr Kanerva sent about 200 text messages from his office mobile to the blonde striptease dancer Johanna Tukiainen, one of which demanded to know what she was wearing under her tight dress.

Another message, tapped out between political meetings, suggested a three-in-a-bed arrangement with Johanna, 29, and her sister, Julia, who has worked in the pornography industry.

Conflict resolution has rarely been so racey or caused such a stir. After the text messages appeared in the press, the live-in partners of both women threw them out. Johanna will continue, however, to work for the Dolls dance group, Julia will carry on working in the film sector - and Mr Kanerva will stay in office - thanks to the support offered by Matti Vanhanen, the Prime Minister.

Plainly the Prime Minister, 52, was able to sympathise with his Foreign Minister: Mr Vanhanen has just emerged from a courtroom run-in with his former mistress, Susan Kuronen. He ended their affair with an abrupt text message (on a Nokia), announcing: “It's over.”

His jilted girlfriend went on to publish a kiss-and-tell memoir detailing not only his romantic e-mails and text messages but also how he once, in a passionate clinch, compared her to an oven-baked potato, his other great love. Mr Vanhanen's popularity rose after this revelation. The Foreign Minister may be in for a similar boost.

Finland was once famous mainly for Sibelius, modern design and hard-drinking loggers. That changed when Nokia transformed itself from a gum-boot manufacturer into the world's biggest maker of mobile phones. That has helped Finland to reinvent itself as a country at the cutting edge of technology. After all when Mr Varhanen split up with his wife two years ago he turned to internet dating.

Now it is difficult to watch a Finnish politician fiddling expertly on his phone keypad without wondering whether the message is about potatoes or something even more intimate.

Certainly the Foreign Minister has form. Before he joined this Cabinet he took a break in Tallinn in Estonia where he spent some relaxed days with women he had met in nightclubs. Subsequently he bombarded them with hundreds of text messages from his office phone. He was called to order then, as now, by his conservative party boss, Jyrkki Katainen. But the veteran politician - he has been in parliament for 33 years and has held half a dozen ministerial jobs - survived.

Yesterday Mr Kanerva and his Nokia were in Paris, for talks with his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner. They concentrated on affairs of state: Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sudan, Russia. It was, said a diplomat, business as usual.

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