Berlusconi faces Senate expulsion

An Italian Senate committee has approved a motion for Silvio Berlusconi to be expelled from parliament following his criminal conviction, dealing a further humiliating blow to the embattled billionaire tycoon.

The senators, most of them leftist opponents of the three-time former premier, voted 15 for and eight against and the motion now goes to the full Senate for final approval expected later this month.

After hours of talks, the head of the committee, Dario Stefano, said it had "decided by a majority to propose that the Senate assembly debate invalidating the election of senator Berlusconi".

The procedure could add to the political tensions in Italy that threatened to topple the uneasy coalition government earlier this week and sent shock waves through the financial markets.

Ejection from the Senate would mean Berlusconi being out of parliament for the first time since 1994, when the media and construction magnate first burst onto Italy's political scene.

Berlusconi said the decision showed "a specific desire to eliminate through judicial means a political adversary who has not been eliminated at the ballot box through democratic means".

"When you violate a state of laws, you hit the heart of democracy," he said in a Facebook post.

Berlusconi allies have said he could continue to lead his party even out of parliament but analysts say his failed challenge to Prime Minister Enrico Letta shows he has lost control of the party.

Berlusconi said on Saturday that he was pulling his ministers out of the government and pushing for early elections but the ministers themselves and other once loyal allies baulked and he was forced into a U-turn in parliament on Wednesday.

Some PDL lawmakers have said they could break off and set up their own grouping in parliament, although the 77-year-old Berlusconi has played down divisions saying: "I see an absolutely united party with some internal differences".