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The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and his challenger, Romano Prodi, traded insults and extravagant accusations in their first debate in a decade, held under rigid, American-style rules.

Millions watched the live debate last night, the first of two before the general election on 9 and 10 April, with public interest further piqued by the revelation in the Corriere della Sera newspaper yesterday that nearly a quarter of the electorate has yet to make up its mind. Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition has a slim lead in the opinion polls.

According to Mr Berlusconi, 85 per cent of Italy's frequent strikes are politically motivated. Mr Prodi claimed that 50 of Mr Berlusconi's MPs came from his commercial companies (the PM said the correct figure was three), and that he had doubled the manpower in the Prime Minister's office to more than 400 people.

Mr Berlusconi seemed ill at ease, doodling while he spoke. But despite the tight format and absence of an audience, the show provided a vivid clash of two dramatically different styles of leadership and government.

Mr Berlusconi sounded a Thatcherite note in his demand for light government and "reducing the imposition of the state". But he was also keen to boast about his public works, including the Moses plan to build huge submerged gates in the Venice lagoon to stop the city from flooding, and the vast suspension bridge to Sicily. All told these were "the greatest public works in the world", he claimed, and employed 450,000 workers.

Mr Prodi, beaming warmly and waving his arms, sounded very old Labour, elaborating his vision of the country marching into the future in lockstep and the government mediating actively between unions and employers.

But neither man delivered a knockout punch. Mr Berlusconi was surprisingly easy on Mr Prodi's communist coalition allies, and Mr Prodi, a former president of the European Commission, tiptoed around Mr Berlusconi's 13 criminal trials. Neither had a convincing answer to the most important question: how Italy is to climb out of the hole it is in, with zero economic growth.