TONY BLAIR and President Bush stood by their ally Silvio Berlusconi yesterday, declining to congratulate Romano Prodi on his victory in Italy’s close-run general election until the results are officially confirmed.

President Chirac of France showed no such hesitation, telephoning the former President of the European Commission to offer his warmest congratulations and to invite him to Paris.

M Chirac hoped that Franco-Italian ties would deepen with Signor Prodi in power. But with Signor Berlusconi still contesting Signor Prodi’s wafer-thin victory, Mr Blair and Mr Bush held back. The White House said that it would work with any government that emerged from the Italian elections, but was awaiting final results. Downing Street said that Mr Blair was looking forward to working with the new Prime Minister.

Mr Blair and Mr Bush regarded Signor Berlusconi as a staunch ally over Iraq and made no secret of their closeness. Mr Bush held a Washington summit with Signor Berlusconi in the run-up to the election — a move the Italian Left denounced as election propaganda.

Signor Prodi, by contrast, has openly criticised the Iraq conflict and Mr Blair’s attitude to the EU and intends to put Europe’s interests ahead of those of Washington.

A Prodi aide told The Times that “relations were frosty for a while, partly because of the Iraq war and partly because of Blair’s closeness to Berlusconi”. But he said that Mr Blair had gone out of his way to mend fences with Signor Prodi at a meeting of centre-left leaders in Prague last month.

Signor Berlusconi has demanded a recount of 43,000 spoilt ballot papers that should be completed by late this week or early next. The Centre Left won the Lower House by only 25,000 votes.

But Signor Prodi insisted: “Our victory is safe. We have won . . . Berlusconi has to go.”

Signor Berlusconi remained defiant last night: “The election result has to change because there was widespread fraud.”

Within the centre-right coalition recriminations broke out over the decision to give Italians abroad a vote.

The Berlusconi-owned Il Giornale blamed Mirko Tremaglia, 80, the Minister for Italians Overseas, who devised the 2001 law extending the vote. It said that the result had been an “own goal” as the expatriates elected four senators from the Centre Left and only one from the Centre Right.

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