Silvio Berlusconi took a step closer to having his corruption charges consigned to the dustbin yesterday when a key coalition ally backed a new limit on the time the courts could have to convict him.

Gianfranco Fini, Mr Berlusconi’s main political rival and most likely successor, said after talks with the Prime Minister that a new measure would be introduced in parliament “within days”, cutting the statute of limitations in bribery cases from ten years to six.

Two trials are due to resume this month after a law granting Mr Berlusconi immunity from prosecution was overturned by the Constitutional Court.

The first relates to alleged tax fraud over the purchase of film rights by Mediaset, Mr Berlusconi’s television company. The charges currently expire in 2012.

In the second trial, due to resume on November 27, Mr Berlusconi is accused of having given David Mills, his former tax adviser, $600,000 to give misleading evidence on his behalf in two corruption trials in the 1990s. These charges are due to run out in 2011.

Niccolo Ghedini, Mr Berlusconi’s lawyer, has been trying to find a way to ensure that both cases are “timed out”. It is not clear yet when the measures would come into effect or if they would be retroactive.

Initially the Prime Minister had demanded a cap of two years but Mr Fini — who last week said that Mr Berlusconi “sometimes confuses leadership with absolute monarchy” — said that this would be impractical.

Support for a law that would, in effect, banish the two cases against Mr Berlusconi appears to show that Mr Fini has judged it worth backing his rival for now.

He had distanced himself from Mr Berlusconi, who has been weakened by sex scandals as well as legal troubles.

Mr Berlusconi said after the meeting that “all went well” but did not elaborate.

Trials in Italy, including the the three-stage process of sentencing plus two appeals in corruption cases, can last for more than a decade.

Antonio Di Pietro, the former anti-corruption magistrate and leader of the Italy of Values party, said that the measures were part of “a criminal game” designed only “to save the Prime Minister”.

Donatella Ferranti, of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, urged Parliament — where the centre Right has a comfortable majority — to reject a law “tailor-made to protect Berlusconi”.

• Prosecutors in Naples applied for the arrest of Nicola Cosentino, the Under-Secretary of Finance, yesterday on suspicion of colluding with the Camorra, the Naples Mafia, to end the city’s rubbish crisis. Mr Cosentino denies the allegations.

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