*Sources: Int'l Media / The Times
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - June 16, 2009: A defiant Silvio Berlusconi held White House talks with President Obama yesterday, seeking to restore some of his international lustre as scandals and talk of a coup to overthrow him continued to swirl at home. 
US President Barack Obama listens to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during a meeting in the Oval office at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 15, 2009. President Barack Obama said Monday Italy had agreed to accept three specific detainees from the Guantanamo Bay "war on terror" camp, after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
With world media attention riveted by lurid details of his private life, the Italian Prime Minister did his best to present himself in sober and statesmanlike pose at the meeting with Mr Obama.
They discussed the crisis in Iran, the Middle East peace process, troop commitments in Afghanistan and next month’s G8 summit, which Italy will host in the earthquake-ravaged town of L’Aquila. Mr Berlusconi said that Italy would take three detainees from Guantánamo Bay, which the US wants to close by January next year.
It was all a long way from the furore over allegations about Mr Berlusconi’s relationship with Noemi Letizia — an 18-year-old aspiring model — and photographs of scantily clad individuals at his villa in Sardinia. 
The mystery of the relationship between Silvio Berlusconi and an 18-year-old aspiring model deepened yesterday when photographs were published showing them attending a Christmas party given by AC Milan, the football club that he owns. La Repubblica, the newspaper, published photographs and a video clip on its website showing Noemi Letizia seated at a table with Fedele Confalonieri, the head of Mr Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest. One of his longest-serving friends and business partners, Carlo Ancelotti, the AC Milan manager, can be seen standing behind them. Letizia, who is at the centre of Mr Berlusconi’s divorce row, attended the party with her mother, Anna Palumbo.
Veronica Lario, the second wife of Mr Berlusconi, 72, requested a divorce after he attended the 18th birthday party of Ms Letizia last month and gave her a €6,000 (£5,200) diamond pendant.
Mr Berlusconi was quoted in Italy by La Repubblica yesterday as vowing to step down and call an early election if his opponents continued with an alleged plot to bring him down. “My Government will go ahead calmly, but if it does not then we shall have to return to the polls,” he was reported to have said.
However, the Prime Minister’s spokesman dismissed the remark last night as fantasy.
Rumours of a conspiracy against Mr Berlusconi were first raised in a speech he made at the weekend. He did not specify who might be behind it but several names were mentioned by allies and political commentators speculating that he would be replaced by either a caretaker government headed by a non-partisan figure or a cross-party government of national unity.
The meeting with Mr Obama yesterday represented an important opportunity for him to restore his international reputation alongside one of the world’s most popular leaders.
Il Giornale, Mr Berlusconi’s newspaper, said that he had cancelled a dinner at the Italian Embassy in Washington, as well as visits to the National Gallery and Arlington National Cemetery, to concentrate on his meeting with the US President.
Mr Berlusconi promised that he would arrive in Washington “handsome and suntanned” — a reference to his controversial description of Mr Obama soon after the US elections, when he described America’s first black president as “handsome, young and suntanned”.
The Prime Minister’s aides denied reports that relations with the new Administration were cool. “If that were the case it would not explain why Berlusconi is the second European leader after Gordon Brown to be received at the White House,” one said.
They also denied that there was American “irritation” over Mr Berlusconi’s close relations with Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, who, on a visit to Rome last week, made a comparison between America and al-Qaeda.
US President Barack Obama listens to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during a meeting in the Oval office at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 15, 2009. President Barack Obama said Monday Italy had agreed to accept three specific detainees from the Guantanamo Bay "war on terror" camp, after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
With world media attention riveted by lurid details of his private life, the Italian Prime Minister did his best to present himself in sober and statesmanlike pose at the meeting with Mr Obama.
They discussed the crisis in Iran, the Middle East peace process, troop commitments in Afghanistan and next month’s G8 summit, which Italy will host in the earthquake-ravaged town of L’Aquila. Mr Berlusconi said that Italy would take three detainees from Guantánamo Bay, which the US wants to close by January next year.
It was all a long way from the furore over allegations about Mr Berlusconi’s relationship with Noemi Letizia — an 18-year-old aspiring model — and photographs of scantily clad individuals at his villa in Sardinia. The mystery of the relationship between Silvio Berlusconi and an 18-year-old aspiring model deepened yesterday when photographs were published showing them attending a Christmas party given by AC Milan, the football club that he owns. La Repubblica, the newspaper, published photographs and a video clip on its website showing Noemi Letizia seated at a table with Fedele Confalonieri, the head of Mr Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest. One of his longest-serving friends and business partners, Carlo Ancelotti, the AC Milan manager, can be seen standing behind them. Letizia, who is at the centre of Mr Berlusconi’s divorce row, attended the party with her mother, Anna Palumbo.
Veronica Lario, the second wife of Mr Berlusconi, 72, requested a divorce after he attended the 18th birthday party of Ms Letizia last month and gave her a €6,000 (£5,200) diamond pendant.
Mr Berlusconi was quoted in Italy by La Repubblica yesterday as vowing to step down and call an early election if his opponents continued with an alleged plot to bring him down. “My Government will go ahead calmly, but if it does not then we shall have to return to the polls,” he was reported to have said.
However, the Prime Minister’s spokesman dismissed the remark last night as fantasy.
Rumours of a conspiracy against Mr Berlusconi were first raised in a speech he made at the weekend. He did not specify who might be behind it but several names were mentioned by allies and political commentators speculating that he would be replaced by either a caretaker government headed by a non-partisan figure or a cross-party government of national unity.
The meeting with Mr Obama yesterday represented an important opportunity for him to restore his international reputation alongside one of the world’s most popular leaders.
Il Giornale, Mr Berlusconi’s newspaper, said that he had cancelled a dinner at the Italian Embassy in Washington, as well as visits to the National Gallery and Arlington National Cemetery, to concentrate on his meeting with the US President.
Mr Berlusconi promised that he would arrive in Washington “handsome and suntanned” — a reference to his controversial description of Mr Obama soon after the US elections, when he described America’s first black president as “handsome, young and suntanned”.
The Prime Minister’s aides denied reports that relations with the new Administration were cool. “If that were the case it would not explain why Berlusconi is the second European leader after Gordon Brown to be received at the White House,” one said.
They also denied that there was American “irritation” over Mr Berlusconi’s close relations with Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, who, on a visit to Rome last week, made a comparison between America and al-Qaeda.
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