Blair on defensive over key alliance with Berlusconi

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The comments were brief and there was no mention of Silvio Berlusconi. At a short, hastily convened news conference, Tony Blairrejected claims that he was too close to Italy's controversial centre-right leader and his ilk – even suggesting some distance between London and Rome.

"I work with leaders from right around the world, whatever their political party or their government," Mr Blair said. "I do not choose presidents or prime ministers."

The casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that the Blair-Berlusconi axis is a coincidence, rather than a close alliance that diplomats joke of as "Blairlusconi".

Suddenly Downing Street's links with the Italian Prime Minister have started to be an embarrassment. The first day of the EU summit on economic reform was overshadowed by a traditional left-right row, with the unions attacking the Government for its support for a right-wing agenda in Europe.

In an interview in The Times, John Monks, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, described the Blair/Berlusconi position on workers' rights as "bloody stupid", and other union bosses followed suit. The outburst was the culmination of anger on the left at Mr Blair's choice of friends in Europe. When Mr Berlusconi swept to power last year most of the EU prime ministers kept their distance. Not so Mr Blair, who held the first bilateral meeting with the Italian Prime Minister at the Gothenberg EU summit. Those talks were worn by Mr Berlusconi as a badge of his international respectability.

Mr Blair's interest was simple. For two years Downing Street had been courting EU allies of all persuasions in an effort to forge alliances that would counter-balance the Franco-German axis.

Mr Blair had strong ties with Jose Maria Aznar, the centre-right Spanish Prime Minister and advocate of economic reform. Here was another similarly minded ally whose officials argued that Britain's pugnacious diplomacy could prove a model for Rome. There was even a nickname for the three: BAB – Blair, Aznar, Berlusconi.

Last June, British diplomats hoped Mr Berlusconi's reputation for controversy would prove to be exaggerated. In the meantime, however, he has made a series of gaffes, including his comments on the superiority of Western culture over Islam. At an EU summit in Laeken last year he shouted at fellow leaders, demanding a new EU food safety agency go to Italy rather than Finland, where the locals did not know what prosciutto was.

Obstructive over EU justice measures, Mr Berlusconi, who missed part of the summit yesterday due to gastro-enteritis, has consolidated his grip on the media at home. The Italian opposition has mounted a vast demonstration against him.

On the left at a European level there has been growing anger at the closeness between Mr Blair, who is technically aligned with the Party of European Socialists, and the right-winger. The Barcelona summit has put the relationship into an even sharper focus because it is concentrating on an issue on which the two countries strongly agree: economic reform.

Yesterday Downing Street said Mr Blair would meet his Italian counterpart if there was an opportunity. It did not disown Mr Berlusconi but, instead, concentrated on defending the case they share.

That may be because, for Mr Blair, his Italian counterpart could become a dangerous ally. At home, the Prime Minister faces criticism over alleged sleaze. His politics aside, someone who has faced as many corruption inquiries as Mr Berlusconi might not be the best kind of political pal.