ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER Silvio Berlusconi leads a partying lifestyle which had medically turned him to a “complete mess” last year, having become “politically and personally weak”, according to leak documents posted on WikiLeaks.

A cable sent by US ambassador to Italy, David Thorne, suggested that “a growing list of scandals, adverse court decisions and health issues have weakened him; and led some erstwhile Berlusconi allies to begin hedging their bets on his political longevity.”

Another older message suggested that Berlusconi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had pursued “mutual commercial interests” when they had agreed a series of energy deals between their countries.

That cable indicated US fears that Berlusconi had been such an admirer of Putin, with his “macho, decisive and authoritarian governing style”, that he had begun to unquestionably support Kremlin policies – a development Washington found “troubling”.

He was, in one memo, outlined as playing “Robin to [his] Batman“, engaging in heavy “tandem politics”.

The former ambassador, Ronald Spogli, said he had received word from his Georgian counterpart in Rome who believed Putin had offered Berlusconi “a percentage of profits from any pipelines developed by Gazprom in co-ordination with [Italian energy company] ENI”.

Berlusconi has denied the allegations, saying it was “quite clear that I have absolutely no interest in any other country; that there are absolutely no personal interests, and that I only look after the interests of the Italians and my country.”

He has also strenuously contested any suggestions he has partied himself ragged, insisting that he only throws monthly “dinner parties at my hosues, where everything takes place in a proper, dignified and elegant way”.