Monsignor Domenico Mogavero, Bishop of Mazara del Vallo in Sicily and a former senior official in the Italian Bishops’ Conference, said that Mr Berlusconi should “consider whether it is opportune to resign in the interests of the country”.

The Prime Minister was further criticised by the Church when Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, head of the Conference, warned against “men drunk on a delirium of their own greatness, who touch the illusion of omnipotence and distort moral values”.

A petition to the wives of the G8 leaders asking them to boycott the summit has nearly 7,000 signatures since the appeal began on Tuesday, the organisers said.

Mr Berlusconi appeared defiant as he made a visit to L’Aquila, the centre of the Abruzzo earthquake in April and the venue for the G8 summit.

He claimed that his popularity rating was 61 per cent, “an absolute record in the West” despite “everything that has been written and said in recent days”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6579299.ece – June 26, 2009