GONE is the time when Silvio Berlusconi exuberantly welcomed “my friend Tony” to Rome, and entertained the Blairs at his magnificent villa in Sardinia.

Signor Berlusconi has been dumped from office. Mr Blair’s days in Downing Street are numbered, and yesterday the Prime Minister spent a few relatively downbeat hours in the Italian capital patching up relations with Romano Prodi, his old nemesis and Signor Berlusconi’s successor.

After three years of estrangement over Iraq and Europe, the two men put on a good show of camaraderie during a walk in a Renaissance park.

There was much mutual elbow gripping, lively gesticulation, broad smiles and, as they parted, an embrace, with Mr Blair and Signor Prodi air kissing each other on alternate cheeks, Italian-style.

But they did not expose themselves to questioning that might have punctured the carefully cultivated impression of amity. There was no joint press conference, as is the normal practice at such meetings. Questions were shouted at Mr Blair, but he ignored them.

On Iraq, officials said later, the two leaders agreed that the British and Italian defence ministers would hold talks within days on the modalities of the withdrawal of Italy’s 2,600 troops, who come under British command in southern Iraq. That number is expected to drop to 1,600 this month, with all Italian forces withdrawn by the end of the year.

Asked later if Mr Blair had agreed to this, Signor Prodi replied bluntly: “That is not the point at issue . . . The Italian decision to withdraw has been taken, and that is that.”

Mr Blair looked tanned and relaxed after six days of swimming and tennis at the estate of Prince Girolamo Guicciardini Strozzi, near San Gimignano, where he has been on holiday. Today he will meet Pope Benedict XVI before returning to London.

Signor Berlusconi, who believes that he will return to power before long, dined with Mr Blair in Tuscany on Monday, just as in the old days.

He emerged to say that he had offered his help on international affairs, adding: “I believe I still have to a role to play.” But the Blair-Berlusconi alliance is over, and Italy’s centre-left Government is moving fast to reverse the Berlusconi legacy.

Signor Prodi and Mr Blair were once close, too. After losing power in 1998, Signor Prodi was appointed President of the European Commission in Brussels, thanks largely to Mr Blair’s support.

But their relations soured over their differing attitudes to European integration. Signor Prodi observed testily last year that Mr Blair claimed to have a “lofty vision” of Europe when he did not. The problem with the British Prime Minister, he remarked, is that he too often “says one thing and does another”.

Like the Italian Left in general, Signor Prodi was also vocal in his opposition to the war in Iraq, which he has described as a grave error.

And so, after meeting over lunch at Villa Pamphili, a government-owned Renaissance jewel on the Janiculum Hill, Mr Blair and Signor Prodi deliberately spent several minutes in the gravel-pathed gardens holding an animated and amiable conversation in front of the world’s cameras, although not close enough to be overheard or to be asked questions.

Officials said that Iraq had taken up a fifth of the discussion, with Iran, the forthcoming G8 summit in Russia and European energy, research and immigration policy taking up the rest of the time.

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