Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday defended Italy's position on an EU climate change deal, denying he was isolating Italy within Europe over the matter.

The row began when EU Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas was quoted as saying he was "astonished" by Italian objections to the deal and that Italy had overestimated the cost of compliance.

The Commission estimates the costs for Italy would not exceed €13 billion, while Mr Berlusconi has cited more than €20 billion. Opposition leaders said the government's tough stance risked isolating Italy from other EU founding members.

Mr Berlusconi yesterday rejected the charges.

"The Italian request to have more time to analyse the theme of reduction of costs of the carbon dioxide was shared by nine other states," Mr Berlusconi said. "So Italy is not isolated in Europe, it's only the opposition continuing its bad habit, that is, of creating controversies against its own country."

He said Italy had only demanded that the costs for cutting CO2 emissions be borne by European citizens equally, or it would be too cumbersome for manufacturing nations.

At a two-day EU climate change summit last week, Mr Berlusconi threatened to use a veto power to demand less burden on Italian industry. But leaders stuck to a December deadline and ambitious targets of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth by 2020.