It was a tour de force, with Silvio Berlusconi determined to put the scandals of the past two months behind him and pose convincingly as a world statesman, with a torrent of statistics to back him up.

The choice of a cruise ship, however, was always going to be a reminder of his origins as a cruise ship entertainer with an eye for pretty women. The setting must have brought it all back to him — a splendidly kitsch ship’s bar, all low ceilings, glitzy lighting and massive curved sofas. There was even a piano. You half-expected him to get up and start playing one of the Neapolitan songs that he is so fond of and composes himself.

His message was that Italy and the world needed confidence, not negative predictions. He was, he reminded us, the son of a banking official from Milan and knew about credit. He was also an entrepreneur and knew about the importance of confidence. Bono had said that the West had not lived up to its aid promises? Well, some countries were behind with paying up for their Gleaneagles aid commitments but that could be sorted with goodwill.

He had, he said, been “the most active” of world leaders, using his close relationship with Moscow to resolve the crisis in Georgia last August (the period when most of the paparazzi photographs of women at his Sardinian villa parties were taken) and advising a reluctant President Bush to bail out US banks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

When it came to questions there was only one oblique reference to his “private life” and as he left he ignored a shouted question about why he had spent the US election night last November with an escort girl.

The only reminder of his weakness for striking women was the presence in the front row of Michela Vittoria Brambilla, the former beauty pageant contestant whom he has made Tourism Minister.

That weakness is still likely to be on the minds of the world at L’Aquila, with doubts over whether Mr Berlusconi’s domestic political crises will detract from his ability to tackle global issues.

Moreover, he does not have the close relationship with Barack Obama — whom he notoriously described as “suntanned” — that he enjoyed with Mr Bush. Mr Berlusconi’s aides had to work overtime to explain away a report that Mr Berlusconi had told Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, that Mr Obama was weak on Iran.

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