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Berlusconi hints at EMU delay if he wins power

ROME: Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi said Italy could seek a delay in the introduction of a single European currency if his Freedom Alliance coalition won power in this month's general election.

The former prime minister also called for a flexible interpretation of the tough conditions Italy and other European Union countries must meet under the EU's Maastricht treaty to be in at the outset of a single currency starting in 1999.

"I believe it would be a disservice to Europe to start with a single currency that isn't single in the sense that it could exclude important countries, among them a country important to Europe such as Italy," he told Reuters in an interview.

To join the economic and monetary union (EMU) at the proposed start date, EU countries must meet set convergence criteria on levels of debt, public deficit and inflation in 1997 and must be deemed to have achieved currency stability.

Italy's public debt as a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) now stands at 124 percent compared with the EMU level of 60 percent while the deficit-to-GDP ratio is 7.4 percent against an EMU target of three percent.

Berlusconi said the Freedom Alliance would do all in its power to meet the single currency conditions if it was elected to power in the April 21 general elections.

"We believe, however, that these parameters have to be interpreted with flexibility," the media mogul said. "We also believe that a delay in the start of a single currency system is preferable to a single currency system that excludes countries."

He said a Berlusconi government would "get to work on broad and penetrating diplomatic action with our partners" on the issue.-Reuter