Romano Prodi, Italy's outgoing prime minister, has turned down an offer from Russian president Vladimir Putin to head the South Stream gas pipeline project. According to the Financial Times, a close associate of Mr Prodi said that the prime minister's answer was not final.

By Judy Dempsey The Russian state-controlled energy behemoth, Gazprom, was courting Italy's departing prime minister, Romano Prodi, on Monday to become boss of the new Russian-Italian South Stream pipeline, as it sought to increase political support in Europe for its criticized growth plans.

By Peter Popham He is still more than a week away from taking office, but Italy's newly-elected Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is wrestling with his first major crisis: the imminent bankruptcy of Alitalia. If the national carrier goes under, more than 18,000 staff could lose their jobs.

Business News IN BRIEF *Air France-KLM formally withdrew its bid for Alitalia late last night, sharply reducing the chances that Europe's biggest airline can be persuaded to buy the Italian flag carrier.

By Peter Popham Silvio Berlusconi celebrated an election comeback triumph last night, putting him back in charge of the world's seventh biggest economy for a third term as the centre-left failed to summon the unity to stop him.