Italy's PM turns cold shoulder to Games

The Winter Olympics have trained an international spotlight on hosts Italy, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for once is not strutting on stage.

The media-savvy politician has been on a month-long offensive ahead of April elections, logging long hours on TV and radio to speak about most anything including his own sex life.

But on the biggest international sporting event in Italy since the 1990 World Cup, he has uttered barely a word. Although he has criss-crossed Italy, the peripatetic premier has made no visit to the venues in and around Turin.

"It's been clear all along Berlusconi has been cool to the Olympics," said Gianni Merlo, president of the International Sports Press Association and a journalist with Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport. "He is in everything else, but not this."

In one of his few public comments on the February 10-26 Games, Berlusconi said last month: "I hope all goes well because this will certainly be a wonderful showcase for Italy."

Berlusconi's office denies he has shunned the Games but acknowledges he has not yet decided whether to attend the first Winter Olympics in Italy in 50 years.

For a former crooner on cruise ships skilled in extracting advantage from the media - his family controls Italy's largest private broadcaster, Mediaset - Berlusconi's apparent indifference to the limelight might seem out of character.

He is no stranger to the dividends that sport can pay a politician. He built Milan into a world football powerhouse, then launched a political career and a party, Forza Italia (Go Italy), named after a soccer cheer.

The kinder critics say Berlusconi is like many Italians - crazy for football, not for niche snow sports.

"He has never skied in his life. He doesn't even know what snow is," said Vittorio Feltri, editor of Libero newspaper. "He only understands football."

Others say that faced with elections that opinion polls say he will lose, Berlusconi sees little political benefit from Olympics held in the northwest corner of the country and unable to date to generate a national outpouring of support.

Berlusconi's sterner critics accuse him of playing bald politics - Turin as well as the surrounding province and the Piedmont region are all run by centre-left administrations.

Turin pensioner Arnaldo Brunetti said: "Turin is left-wing while he is on the right."

Local politicians say he masterminded last-minute cuts in national funding for the Turin organising committee.

"It's clear that we have been punished because the political majority in Piedmont has shifted," Piedmont president Mercedes Bresso said last month.

"He's shown no interest, either positive or negative," Bresso told Reuters this week, adding: "Right now he has to be on television. He's involved in other things."

Others offer two more reasons for Berlusconi's apparent indifference.

Mediaset does not own TV rights to the Games.

Also, the self-made billionaire has never been close to the Agnelli family, which founded the Fiat car company based in Turin and which offered crucial backing for the city's bid.

Olympic president Jacques Rogge said Berlusconi has been extremely supportive of the Games.

"I paid him three visits. Each time I came with a problem and each time he found me an answer not later than a couple of days," Rogge said.