Silvio Berlusconi, visiting Israel's parliament today, appeared to wipe away a tear when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled how the Italian leader's mother helped a Jewish girl during World War Two.

Netanyahu told how on a train on her way to work Berlusoni's mother saw a German policeman arresting a Jewish girl.

"The Italian woman, who was then eight months pregnant, stood between the policeman and the girl. And without a grain of fear, she confronted the German policeman and said to him: 'You can kill me, but look at the faces of the people on the train, I promise you they won't let you get out alive.'," Netanyahu said.

"With this firm statement, the Italian woman saved the Jewish girl and lit, if only for a moment, a ray of humanistic light and bravery in the great darkness that pervaded all of Europe. That brave woman was named Rosa, and one of her sons is named Silvio Berlusconi, today the prime minister of Italy."

Berlusconi, 73, listening on the podium to a translation of the Hebrew-language speech which preceeded his own address to the Knesset, flicked a hand across his eye and nodded in appreciation as Netanyahu turned toward him and applauded, as legislators joined in.

"I am moved and thank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for recalling an episode involving my mother, who in that moment expressed the feelings of all Italian women," Berlusconi said in his speech.