Berlusconi meets Obama

Could Silvio Berlusconi get through a day in Washington, including a one-hour face-to-face meeting with Barack Obama, without screwing up? And could the American president get through it without being offended yet again by the man who greeted the election of the first black American to the White House with a quip about him being "young, handsome and sun-tanned"? A joke considered so inappropriate by American Italians that hundreds of them wrote to the New York Times to apologise.

The answer to both questions was yes, just. As our photo shows, an hour with the clownish Italian PM was undoubtedly quite enough for Obama. And it probably helped that neither man can speak a word of the other's language, for any small talk would have been difficult: Berlusconi's wife is leaving him, and despite his control of much of the Italian media, he has been unable to halt the rumours of his relationship with the 18-year-old wannabe model Noemi Letizia, nor the publication in Spain of lurid long-lens photos of girls cavorting by the pool at his Sardininian villa.

Il Giornale, Berlusconi's newspaper, said the PM was taking his meeting with Obama so seriously that he cancelled a dinner at the Italian Embassy in Washington, as well as visits to the National Gallery and Arlington National Cemetery in order to "concentrate".

Berlusconi used the visit to promise that Italy would take three detainees from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, which Obama has vowed to close. But the main purpose was to discuss next month's G8 summit, which Berlusconi is hosting in the Umbrian town of L'Aquila, devastated by an earthquake earlier this year.

James Walston, professor of international relations at the American University in Rome, said that while many Italians were "extremely concerned" about Berlusconi's behaviour on the world stage, others are more relaxed.

"He always does it, whatever his minders try and do - they cannot control him when he starts ad-libbing, and he loves it," said Walston. "A lot of his supporters think it's great. They thought the 'sun-tan' remark was either funny, or quite appropriate.

"A week ago he said Milan was an 'African town' just because there are a lot of non-white faces there. His supporters thought that was fun. It just shows how polarised Italian society is."