Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was forced by Washington and London to backtrack on his surprise announcement that Italian troops would start leaving Iraq in September, the Italian press said today.
  
"George W Bush and Tony Blair say 'Stop Berlusconi'," read the headline in the centre-left opposition daily La Repubblica.
  
US President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair reacted to Berlusconi's announcement by saying that no troop withdrawal from Iraq has been ordered and that the Italian leader would not act unilaterally.
  
Berlusconi then qualified his remarks on pulling Italy's 3,300 soldiers out of southern Iraq in about six months, calling it "a wish".
  
"If it isn't possible, it isn't possible. The disengagement must be co-ordinated with the allies," he said.
  
The left-wing daily Il Manifesto said Berlusconi had flip-flopped throughout the day, with the final version of his remarks making it clear that for the moment "the start of the (troop) withdrawal announced with all solemnity on television was only a wish".
  
The headline in Italy's main newspaper, Corriere della Sera, said the US and British leaders "put the brakes on" Berlusconi.
  
The paper also criticised the Italian leader for changing his mind about a matter as serious as the commitment of troops to a war zone.
  
"In a serious country the head of government cannot allow himself to make statements so ambiguous when it concerns the life and death of so many human beings," the paper said.
  
Italian public opinion has been opposed to the country's involvement in Iraq following the US-led invasion in 2003.