Berlusconi in censorship row

Berlusconi denies the censorship allegations

The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has found himself in another controversy over censorship.

The latest allegation comes from one of Italy's most prominent theatre directors.

Luca Ronconi says he was pressured by a government official to remove several large caricatures - including one of the prime minister - from the set of his latest production at a theatre in Syracuse, Sicily.

Art has a right to choose its targets - and make a mistake

Silvio Berlusconi

But Mr Berlusconi denies the allegations.

"The government, the whole government, doesn't even know what censorship is," he said in a statement.

The five-metre-high caricatures of Mr Berlusconi, Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini and Northern League Leader Umberto Bossi were to be part of a production of The Frogs, a fifth-century Greek play by Aristophanes.

Mr Ronconi says he decided to take them down after a confrontation with Economics Undersecretary Gianfranco Micciche, considered Mr Berlusconi's right-hand man in Sicily.

But Mr Berlusconi urged Mr Ronconi to put his posters back up.

"I hope Luca Ronconi... puts back that portrait of that Aristophanes-like tyrant soon," he said.

"He certainly doesn't look like me, but art has a right to choose its targets - and make a mistake."

Cannes controversy

Mr Berlusconi's government has also faced censorship allegations at the Cannes film festival this week.

Italian filmmaker Marco Giusti said on Sunday that the government had tried to suppress his documentary about alleged police brutality at last year's G8 summit in Genoa, where one protester was shot dead by a police officer.

And critics have long accused Mr Berlusconi of abusing his domination of Italy's private television market for political gain.