Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is being treated in a Milan hospital for an eye inflammation that prevented him from attending his sex-for-hire trial.

Berlusconi's personal physician, Alberto Zangrillo, said he had bilateral uveitis, an inflammation of the eyes that he described as painful.

Dr Zangrillo could not rule out the possibility that Berlusconi would be kept in hospital overnight.

Berlusconi's legal team cited the medical condition as a legitimate impediment to a hearing in the sensational trial charging him with having paid for sex with a Moroccan teenager and using his influence to cover it up. The hearing was suspended while the court considered the defence petition.

Defendants in Italy are not required to appear in court, but can petition to delay a hearing for legitimate reasons preventing their attendance.

"Berlusconi had a painful night," Dr Zangrillo told reporters at the San Raffaele hospital, saying the media mogul was suffering from nerve pain, sensitivity to light, tears and vision problems.

Berlusconi, 76, skipped a final campaign rally ahead of last month's elections due to another eye condition, posterior vitreous detachment, which is common among the elderly and involves a gel-like substance in the eye pulling away from the retina.

The court accepted the petition by Berlusconi's lawyers after deliberating for several hours, over the objections of prosecutor Ilda Boccassini, who was scheduled to complete her closing arguments in the case and who asked the court to send independent doctors to confirm Berlusconi's illness.

Berlusconi's defence also submitted a petition to delay a hearing tomorrow in Berlusconi's appeals trial for his tax fraud conviction. He was sentenced to four years in October. Prosecutors are seeking to confirm the sentence, which includes a five-year ban on holding public office.

Both the sex-for-hire and tax fraud cases are nearing verdicts at a particularly sensitive time politically for Italy.

February elections produced no clear winners and talks on forming a new government are not expected to begin until March 20, after parliament convenes next week and leaders of both houses are elected. Berlusconi's centre-right coalition finished second to the centre-left alliance of Pier Luigi Bersani, who is expected to become premier.

In another case, Berlusconi was convicted yesterday of breach of confidentiality and sentenced to a year in jail for the publication in 2005 of wire-tapped conversations related to an attempted bank takeover.

He also is being investigated in Naples for allegedly having paid a politician to defect to his party, a move that significantly weakened the former government of Romano Prodi.

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