Premier demands trial be suspended

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday called for his corruption trial to be suspended and for the reintroduction of judicial immunity for parliamentarians.

After a momentous court appearance earlier this week, where Berlusconi denied he bribed judges during a 1980s business deal, the prime minister said lawmakers had to be protected from politically motivated magistrates.

"I am acting not for any presumed personal interests but for those of the nation," he wrote in a letter to Corriere della Sera newspaper.