Outspoken Berlusconi eyes chart success with album of love songs

ITALY’S irrepressible Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has tapped an old talent as a nightclub crooner by turning out an album of love songs due to hit the stores in October.

Entitled Better with a Song, the album features seven ballads with lyrics written by the flamboyant 66-year-old media tycoon and politician.

Though seen as sharp and intelligent, the outspoken Berlusconi is prone to gaffes that have seen the European media lying in wait for the next slip.

He writes "to relax, to forget", said newspaper reports without mentioning the corruption probes and conflict of interest allegations that have dogged Berlusconi since he entered politics a decade ago.

"It hurts to think that you maybe even now may be lying to me, I don't know if you still love me like before, if you are still sincere, if you still wait for me at night" goes one song.

Berlusconi, who in the 1950s sang at nightclubs and cruise ships , "is still a good singer" but too busy to record his own songs while in office, said Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

Bocelli, chosen by Berlusconi to serenade Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala in Sardinia last Saturday, has recorded the songs featured on the album.`

Meanwhile, a less amorous Berlusconi launched a fresh tirade against Italy's judges, describing them as "mentally deranged".

Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, has frequently taken aim at Italy's judges, accusing them of being politically motivated against him.