Italy's Berlusconi spends night in hospital

MILAN, Nov 27 (Reuters) Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi spent a quiet night in an intensive care unit after fainting at a rally with an irregular heartbeat, a spokesman said today.

Berlusconi, 70, and aides played down the incident but it fuelled speculation about his future as head of the opposition. It also led to the suspension until Friday of a trial against the media tycoon, Italy's richest man, for corporate fraud.

''He is well, he had a quiet night,'' spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said.

The leader of Forza Italia (Go Italy!), the country's biggest party, fainted as he addressed young supporters at a rally in Tuscany yesterday. His eyes closed and his legs gave way before aides propped him up and took him off stage.

Berlusconi, who overcame prostate cancer in the 1990s, said his collapse was due to a combination of tiredness, antibiotics he was taking after a knee operation and the heat at the venue.

''They found something on the electrocardiogram, something like an irregular heartbeat, so they want to keep me under observation for 24 hours,'' Berlusconi said before being flown by helicopter from his villa near Milan to San Raffaele hospital.

The hospital said today it did not yet know when he would be discharged, but an aide said he should still be able to lead a demonstration planned next Saturday in Rome against the centre-left government's belt-tightening 2007 budget.

In a message addressing his arch-rival as ''Dear Silvio'', Prime Minister Romano Prodi expressed his concern.

''I am sure it's a small problem and I wish you a rapid recovery,'' said Prodi, who narrowly defeated Berlusconi in the April elections, ending five years of Berlusconi-led government.

Berlusconi went on trial last week for fraud at broadcaster Mediaset, which his family controls, the latest in a series of legal battles to dog him since he entered politics in 1994.

He denies all wrongdoing in the case, where he is charged with 13 others including British lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.

REUTERS PB BD1725