ITALY:MEDIA MAGNATE Silvio Berlusconi, winner of last weekend's Italian general election, may not have yet formally taken over the reins of power, but he has already provoked a minor international incident.
As he prepares to form his own new government team, the prime minister-elect joked about the fact that the newly formed Spanish government of José Luis Zapatero contains nine women ministers: "Well, he wanted them all and now he's got to lead them." Even though Mr Berlusconi was almost certainly joking - as is his style - his humour was lost on his Spanish colleagues.
The Spanish minister for infrastructure, Magdalena Alvarez, described his comments as "absolutely inappropriate", adding that "many of us would never want to form part of a government led by Berlusconi".
The comments were not the ebullient Mr Berlusconi's only unexpected observations yesterday. As he considered the many challenges facing his government, he focused on the fate of ailing national carrier Alitalia.
Telling reporters that he would be holding meetings on the airline immediately, Mr Berlusconi coined his own new slogan for the carrier: "It came to me this morning and I'll tell what it is - I love Italy and I fly Alitalia".
Earlier, speaking on one of his own TV channels, Mr Berlusconi said he would help the EU regain some of the influence in international affairs that he felt it had lost since he was last in power. Saying the EU needed a "top leadership squad", he added: "There is a need to reconstruct a Europe that has a leading role in the western world and that can tackle with determination the problems facing the world."
In a wide-ranging series of observations made after a meeting with his centre-right PDL partners, Mr Berlusconi warned that, such were the difficulties of the moment, he would be forced to introduce "unpopular" measures.
Asked if he was concerned that his major partner, the Northern League, might prompt internal government wrangling, he dismissed the idea, saying that he could go "guarantor" for Northern League leader Senator Umberto Bossi. On the international front, Mr Berlusconi said that US president George Bush had invited him to dinner "for a celebration".
The newly-elected parliament reconvenes on April 29th, and Mr Berlusconi will receive his formal mandate to form the new government from president Giorgio Napolitano on May 7th, with a confidence vote due on May 13th.