Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's flamboyant Prime Minister, found himself on Italian front pages today – but more for his gaffe in offending the Queen at the G20 "family photograph" than his performance at the summit itself.

At the end of the G20 photo call yesterday Mr Berlusconi shouted out to the US President: “Mr Obamaaaa! This is Mister Berlusconi!”. The Queen then turned to the gathered leaders and said: “What is it? Why does he have to shout?”

Fabio Evangelisti, of the opposition Italy of Values party, said: ''Our country does not deserve a Prime Minister who shouts out and earns the rebuke of the Queen. He should not behave like that when he is representing Italy. It is not right that he should discredit our image in the world in this way.”

Mr Berlusconi, 72, has been notorious for his gaffes and saloon bar jokes since he entered politics in 1994. Last year he described Mr Obama as “suntanned”, and more recently observed that his response to the global economic crisis was different to that of the American president because “I'm paler than he is”.

One Italian cartoon captioned "The Voice of Italy", showing Mr Berlusconi yelling "Mister Obama!!! – " with the Queen, handbag on her arm, putting her fingers in her ears.

A beaming Mr Berlusconi also featured heavily across front pages today in a photograph showing him sandwiched between a smiling President Medvedev of Russia and Mr Obama giving thumbs up.

Mr Berlusconi was credited by some in Italy with bringing the leaders together for the shot and some observers suggested that he would be able to build on the bonhomie achieved in London when he hosts the G8 summit in Sardinia in July.

But under the headline "Silvio, the photocall and the Queen's rebuke" the Corriere della Sera newspaper said that there appeared to be "no end to the Prime Minister's embarrassing jokes".

La Repubblica said that "shouting to someone as if in a bar in Milan" gave the world a mistaken image of Italy. It said that Italians were "mortified and wounded" at Mr Berlusconi's "attention-seeking behaviour", which it suggested was the result of a "deep sense of national inferiority".

Some comments however were more sympathetic to Mr Berlusconi. La Stampa, commenting that the gaffe would "go down in history", said that Mr Berlusconi's "dynamism" had "broken the ice" at the G20.

However one comment on YouTube said: "The Queen should lock him in the Tower". Another said: "It's what the world has come to expect from Silvio – and he now wants to be President of Italy. God help us.".

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