Silvio Berlusconi attacks the Guardian

Not content with taking on Italian newspaper editors over their stories of his involvement with showgirls, Silvio Berlusconi is now doing battle with a foreign newspaper - the Guardian.

On the eve of today's summit of world leaders in Italy, their host has hit back at a report in yesterday's Guardian which cited senior Western officials saying the G8 summit preparations were chaotic and that there was pressure to expel Italy from the group.

Berlusconi, addressing a news conference in Rome on the eve of the two-day summit in the quake-damaged town of L'Aquila, called the story "a colossal blunder by a small newspaper". Berlusconi's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, added: "I hope that the Guardian is expelled from the great newspapers of the world. What the Guardian says is a joke - ­ nonsense."

Defence minister Ignazio La Russa suggested a boycott of the British paper because of the report.

As reported here yesterday, the Guardian's diplomatic editor claimed to have spoken to officials from G8 delegations who said that in the absence of Italian initiatives for the summit agenda, Washington had been obliged to address the matter itself. The Americans had even had to organise the delegation conference calls - the so-called 'sherpa calls' - themselves.

The criticism from unnamed officals came on top of the equally serious issue, raised by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Africa campaigner Bob Geldof, that Italy had broken its promises of aid for Africa made at the G20 summit at Gleneagles in 2005.

The Guardian yesterday issued a statement saying it wholeheartedly rejected any suggestion that its report was unfounded.

An Italian foreign ministry spokesman claimed there had been a misunderstanding about the 'sherpa calls'. He said an American-organised call had been made, but it concerned the G20 summit this September in Pittsburgh. ·