Berlusconi's mother, doting matriarch, dies at 97

Silvio Berlusconi's mother died yesterday, aged 97, depriving the Italian tycoon of a doting matriarch and a valuable political asset as he faces a possible chance for re-election to lead the country.

"Mamma Rosa", as she was known to Italians, was a doughty supporter of her ambitious son who rose from her middle-class home to be Italy's richest man and twice its Prime Minister.

Politicians rushed to offer condolences after news was posted on the website of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party that Rosa "passed away peacefully" at her Milan home.

She died without seeing whether the 71-year-old Mr Berlusconi could achieve a third election win - something polls say he is likely to do if elections are called following the collapse of Romano Prodi's fragile centre-left coalition last month.

"He works like a slave from morning to night and in return just gets insults," she said in a rare newspaper interview given shortly before the 2006 election which Mr Berlusconi lost by a tiny margin to Mr Prodi.

At that election she was accompanied at the polling booth by Silvio, kissing her eldest son's hand for photographers.

On the record as loathing Mr Prodi - her son's arch rival throughout a political career which began in the early 1990s - the ailing Rosa was able to enjoy the centre-left leader's downfall on TV.

"It cheered her up, but then she was immediately worried about the amount of work Silvio would have to take on. That's the way all mothers are," said Silvio's brother Paolo.

In predominantly Catholic Italy, where the mother figure is revered as almost sacred, Rosa, a widow since Mr Berlusconi's bank employee father died in 1989, was an electoral asset.