Berlusconi calls for wider ECB functions

Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday he would help the EU regain the influence he said it had lost since he was last in power and called for the European Central Bank's mandate to be broadened.

Speaking on one of his own television channels after winning Italy's April 13-14 election, Mr Berlusconi said the EU needed a "top leadership squad" to make it count in the world.

"There is a need to reconstruct a Europe that has a leading role in the Western world that can tackle with determination the problems facing the world," said the 71-year-old conservative media mogul, who is expected to take office next month.

In later comments that could anger some of Italy's EU partners, for whom ECB independence is sacrosanct, Mr Berlusconi said its mandate should be widened beyond keeping inflation in check. He did not specify what he meant, but in the past he has urged the central bank to support economic growth.

Rules set out in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty give the ECB the power to pursue its primary goal of maintaining price stability free of political influence.

"I believe the ECB's functions need to be widened beyond the power to control inflation," Mr Berlusconi told a news conference.

Italy's third-richest man and owner of AC Milan soccer club, Silvio Berlusconi said during the election campaign he wanted to "intervene" with the ECB and would discuss it with EU leaders such as France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel.