Silvio Berlusconi could enter the Italian general election facing corruption charges after prosecutors dismissed calls to delay a case which has also threatened the career of a UK Cabinet minister.

Lawyers leading the prosecution against the Italian Prime Minister and David Mills, the husband of Tessa Jowell, Tony Blair's Culture Secretary, have rejected an application by the defence for extra time for questioning and investigation.

Fabio De Pasquale and Alfredo Robledo, the senior prosecutors in Milan, will hand over their 15,000-page dossier of allegations to an investigating judge within the next 24 hours.

The prosecutors claim that Mr Mills - who separated from his wife at the weekend - was paid a bribe by the Italian leader to give "false testimony" in corruption trials in the 1990s. Mr Mills and Signor Berlusconi both deny this.

The judge now has 30 days in which to decide whether to lay charges and set the trial date.

Signor Berlusconi, who faces the voters' verdict on his prime ministership on April 9-10, has accused the prosecutors of seeking to influence the election, something that they deny. The prosecutors hope the judge will set a preliminary hearing for May, allowing the trial proper to get under way in June

Richard Owen, Rome Correspondent of The Times, explained that today's decision marked the formal beginning of the legal process.

"The prosecutors today ruled that the defence requests for further interrogation and inquiry were not relevant to the case. They will now spend around 24 hours finalising their dossier before passing it on to the judge.

"The judge will then spent up to a week examining the case and deciding whether there is a case to answer. If so, he will set a date for a preliminary trial, probably in May.

"At that hearing, which neither of the defendants would be required to attend, the charges would be read out and there would be technical arguments to clear the way for a trial proper later in the summer.

"The key question is whether the judge rules that there is a case to answer: if so, it means that Signor Berlusconi will enter the elections with more allegations of corruption hanging over him."

The general election on April 9-10 pits Signor Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition against the centre-left alliance led by Romano Prodi, a former president of the European Commission.

Signor Prodi leads by around 5 percentage points according to all recently published opinion polls but both sides have been criticised for being vague and failing to explain how plans for tax cuts and extra spending would be financed.

Signor Berlusconi has been found guilty of corruption on several occasions but has either been acquitted on appeal or has escaped conviction because time has run out under the statute of limitations.