The Internet has finally left the air-conditioned environment of the office and arrived among the mud

The Internet has finally left the air-conditioned environment of the office and arrived among the mud and blood of the battlefield. But even that will take some persuading, given Mr Berlusconi's hard-bitten ambition and his clear relish at being the centre of attention."You say the Alliance needs a new manager?" he said on Thursday night in response to a joke about the soccer team he owns, AC Milan. Not only does he have charisma, populist appeal and the allegiance of scores of former business associates turned politicians, but he also has the one weapon which makes him the envy of the entire political spectrum: his three private television stations.One possibility is that Mr Berlusconi takes a back seat, acting as political godfather to the centre-right but allowing someone else to run for prime minister. His chief ally, the leader of the former neo-Fascist National Alliance, Gianfranco Fini, has talked openly about reconsidering Mr Berlusconi's position, stopping short only of the obvious consequence - nominating himself in his place.Mr Berlusconi is likely to prove a hard man to dislodge, however. Since his resignation he has ceaselessly pressed for fresh elections, but failed to obtain them.

He has tried to woo both Mr Dini and the popular former anti-corruption magistrate, Antonio Di Pietro, into his political movement, but managed only to alienate them.And now, starting in January, his trial on charges of corruption relating to his Fininvest business empire risks turning him into a serious electoral liability. After all, this is a man who promised the earth when he spectacularly entered politics at the beginning of last year, but whose record has proved him to be far more talk than action.The coalition with which Mr Berlusconi won the March 1994 general elections fell apart after seven turbulent months in which he failed to deliver on any of his key campaign promises. But the threat to Mr Berlusconi's authority is very real, and is likely to intensify once a timetable is established for Italy's much-heralded next general election. Although he did not say so in as many words, Mr Buttiglione and, indeed, much of the Christian Democrat component in the Freedom Alliance, have been pushing to nominate the former head of state, Francesco Cossiga, as their prime ministerial candidate.A man wholly identified with the old political order, Mr Cossiga is, frankly, an unlikely choice. Yesterday, having clamorously failed to unseat his successor, Lamberto Dini, in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, he was casting himself in a rather humbler light."I feel like Snow White in a world without fairy-tales," he said, clearly feeling the pinch of humiliation as a key ally in his push to topple the government, the far-left Rifondazione Comunista, pulled out at the last moment "The rules of business don't seem to apply to politics ... Once upon a time Communists were serious people."This was more than uncomfortable bleating from a wounded leader. Among Mr Berlusconi's colleagues in his patchwork conservative coalition, the Freedom Alliance, the talk was openly of whether this no-confidence vote was one blunder too many, and whether the time had come to find someone else to lead the Italian centre-right."I get the impression that another candidate has emerged in the last few days," one of Mr Berlusconi's newer allies, the Christian Democrat leader Rocco Buttiglione, said with an enigmatic smile.

ANDREW GUMBEL Rome When Silvio Berlusconi was Prime Minister of Italy last year, he said he felt "anointed by the Lord" and the bearer of a divine mission. For Britain, it tops the bill; for France, it comes close to the bottom, after the hard practicalities of military, defence, and foreign policy co-operation.. Although there are visible strains between Paris and Bonn, over what Bonn sees as the laxness of the French government's economic policy and its backsliding on implementing the Schengen agreement on open borders, the "special relationship" persists, and it has not been augmented by a French-British equivalent.The fact remains that, as Mr Chirac noted in June, the Franco-German alliance is a "necessity", even if officials on both sides concede that relations have rarely been worse.It is hard to imagine Mr Chirac flying to London at short notice, as he did to Bonn this week, to reassure John Major that Paris was not changing its priorities.One notable point of agreement between Britain and France in advance of this weekend's meeting is the "excellent" state of bilateral relations and the equally "excellent" state of personal relations between Mr Chirac and Mr Major.However, the two sides clearly differ on the weight they give to this personal element. The active role taken by President Bill Clinton in former Yugoslavia has left the celebrated British-French co-operation on the sidelines. While military collaboration in Bosnia appears to be flourishing, competition for the diplomatic credit has left Paris and London arguing about who will host what sort of Bosnia conference as the prospect of peace draws closer.What appeared to be Britain's ambition of gaining a bilateral relationship resembling that between France and Germany seems also to have been disappointed, or at least to be proceeding more slowly than anticipated. France says up to eight underground tests are needed before May to check its nuclear arsenal and develop computer testing that will render future detonations unnecessary.President Jacques Chirac has promised to sign a global test ban treaty after this last series of tests, and said earlier this week that the series might be cut back to just four more tests.But he has been harshly criticised by European neighbours, the governments of the South Pacific and the environmental group Greenpeace, which has led a series of dramatic sea protests against the test.