ROME: Italian politicians close to Silvio Berlusconi demanded yesterday that his main ally explain his comments about the premier acting like an "absolute monarch" and that Mafia allegations against him were an "atom bomb".

Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi's former foreign minister, is now speaker of parliament's lower house and has been so critical of the prime minister's attacks on the judiciary and parliament that he often appears to be leader of the opposition.

"Our voters have the right to know whose side Fini is on," said Maurizio Gasparri, head of the governing People of Freedom party (PDL) in the Senate, while the Berlusconi family-run newspaper Il Giornale ran the headline: "Fini wants to bury Berlusconi."