Italy 'may leave euro if ECB stays hardline'

Rome - Italy and several other countries will have no choice but to leave the euro unless the European Central Bank drops its hardline monetary policies, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday.

The ECB, whose governing council is due to hold a rate-setting monthly meeting on Thursday, is under pressure to ease its stance to stave off the risk of deflation in Europe.

"Today it would be reckless, and nobody knows what would really be the consequences of our immediate exit from the euro," Berlusconi said in a radio phone-in with state broadcaster RAI.

"But if we did not succeed in changing the monetary policy of the ECB and of Europe, unfortunately reality will force us, France, Greece, Ireland, Portugal ... to leave the euro and return to our national currency," he said.

Berlusconi, who is courting eurosceptic voters ahead of May 25 elections for the European Parliament, said he supported French calls for a devaluation of the euro.

Germany has criticized those statements as encroaching on the independence of the ECB.

The conservative leader - who was convicted for tax fraud and due to start community service Friday - said the ECB should underwrite the debts of all euro members, worry less about inflation and pump more money into the economy to support growth and jobs.