Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi skipped the second and last day of a European Union summit in Brussels to concentrate on campaigning for upcoming regional elections, Italian diplomats said Friday.
Berlusconi's centre-right majority faces an important mid-term test on Sunday and Monday as more than 40 million voters are asked to cast their vote in 13 of 20 Italian regions, DPA reported.
The Italian premier was said to be keen to make the most of the last official day of campaigning, as electoral rules force politicians to stay silent on the last 24 hours before polling starts.
Diplomats stressed that Berlusconi left the gathering after making sure that "all Italian requests" had been included in a draft final declaration of EU leaders expected to be adopted later on Friday.
Other diplomatic sources told the German Press Agency dpa that Italy had insisted on scrapping a reference to the EU's willingness to raise its target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from 20 to 30 per cent if other world powers such as the United States and China made comparable commitments.