ITALY'S famously impolitic prime minister Silvio Berlusconi described the United States president-elect, Barack Obama, yesterday as "young, handsome and even tanned".
Mr Berlusconi appeared to be joking about the United States' first black president at a news conference following talks with Russia's president.
He said, smiling: "I told the president that (Mr Obama] has everything needed in order to reach deals
with him: he's young, handsome and even tanned."
Dmitry Medvedev did not visibly react to the comment.
Italian news agencies said Mr Berlusconi later defended the remark to reporters as he returned to his hotel in Moscow, calling the statement "a great compliment".
"Why are they taking it as something negative? ... If they have the vice of not having a sense of humour, worse for them," the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.
Mr Berlusconi is infamous for eyebrow-raising comments. He once compared a German parliamentarian to a Nazi camp guard.
Italy's only black member of parliament, Jean-Leonard Touadi, called the comment embarrassing. "In the United States, a joke like that wouldn't just be politically incorrect, but a great offence to this amazing example of integration, which it seems the Italian premier should take as an example," Mr Touadi said.
