Berlusconi launches 'puppeteer' libel case

Fassino is launching counter-claim for 15 million euros

Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has launched a 15-million euro libel suit against the country's main opposition leader.

Piero Fassino had accused the prime minister of being the "puppet master" behind allegations that senior left-wingers creamed off millions of euros from a business deal.

Mr Berlusconi's lawsuit, quoted by sources, said the comments could not pass unchallenged.

"It is unacceptable...for assertions to be made that the current prime minister instigated, or worse, was directly involved in calumny," Mr Berlusconi's suit said, according to the sources.

Mr Fassino, leader of the Democrats of the Left party, now says he will seek the same amount - 15 million euros - from a paper edited by the prime minister's brother Paolo.

The paper, Il Giornale, has frequently run details of the allegations on its front page.

Berlusconi says calumny slur not acceptable

The left-wing politicians at the centre of the allegations include European Commission president Romano Prodi, former foreign minister Lamberto Dini and Mr Fassino himself. All three deny wrongdoing.

Mr Prodi - a possible Berlusconi rival in future elections - has complained of being the victim of an "extremely violent political campaign".

The deal at the centre of the row took place in 1997 between Italy and Serbia, then run by ousted president Slobodan Milosevic.

At the time, Mr Prodi was Italian prime minister and Mr Fassino was a foreign office minister.

Telecom Italia, then under state control, spent the equivalent of nearly 450 million euros on a 29% stake in Telekom Srbija.

We shall sue Il Giornale for the same sum because of the campaign it has been waging against Fassino for months Spokesman for Piero Fassino

Five years later the shares were re-sold to the Serbian Government at a massive loss - for only half the purchase price.

Mr Berlusconi has ordered an inquiry into claims from a financial consultant that the three men received more than 220 million euros in backhanders.

The libel case, filed in Bologna, is expected to take months to proceed through the legal system.

"We believe the sum of 15 million euros is proportionate to the gravity of the remarks, the high profile of the person who made the comments and of the one who suffered from them," Mr Berlusconi's lawyer, Fabio Lepri, said earlier this month, when plans for the libel suit were first revealed.

Mr Fassino confirmed his claim for the same amount.

"We shall sue Il Giornale for the same sum because of the campaign it has been waging against Fassino for months," a spokesman for Mr Fassino said.