3.29pm: The office of Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, has officially responded to claims that German chancellor Angela Merkel told Napolitano in October that Silvio Berlusconi should be eased out of office.
They confirmed that the telephone call had taken place, on October 20, but denied the Wall Street Journal’s claim that Merkel asked for Silvio Berlusconi’s head.
Our Rome correspondent John Hooper explains.