“I just want to confirm that everything I have heard about him is true — he’s an extraordinary gentleman and a great leader of this country,” Mr Obama added. He was talking not about Silvio Berlusconi, but about President Napolitano, the head of state.

The White House later attempted to brush off suggestions that the compliments — not extended to Mr Berlusconi — were intended as veiled criticism of the scandal-tainted Prime Minister. Asked if Mr Obama’s praise of Mr Napolitano’s qualities implied that Mr Berlusconi lacked them, a White House spokesman said: “I wouldn’t read too much into it. Sometimes we just mean what we say.”

Italians may draw a different conclusion. More photographs taken of Mr Berlusconi’s Sardinian villa with a long lens are being offered for sale, including some in which two women kiss each other in front of him. Perhaps the “lesbian kiss” was “a joke” staged by the women to embarrass the Prime Minister, the right-wing paper Libero suggested in an interview with the photographer.
Perhaps. At any rate, Mr Berlusconi clearly hoped as the summit opened in the glare of the world’s media that the photographs would not surface, that no further inquiries would be announced into his parties in Sardinia and Rome, and that no more women would come forward describing their alleged nights of passion with him.

By this yardstick, at least, the day went well. Although still suffering from the arthritis of the neck that has afflicted him since the allegations over his private life broke in April, he was all smiles as he greeted his fellow G8 leaders as if the revelations that caused his wife to demand a divorce had not occurred.

Other leaders went along with the performance, with Mr Obama kissing him on both cheeks, Angela Merkel grasping his hand, and Gordon Brown embracing him. In the morning, before the summit got under way, Mr Berlusconi took Ms Merkel on a tour of Onna, one of the Abruzzo towns hit by April’s earthquake, which Germany has pledged to restore in reparation for a Nazi massacre of 17 residents of the town in 1944.

The first day of discussions on the future of the global economy and climate change over, Mr Berlusconi took Mr Obama and President Medvedev on a similar tour of the ruins of L’Aquila — in keeping, he said, with the “sober spirit” of the summit. He gave each of the G8 leaders a black parka jacket by Belstaff, the maker of stormwear to the stars, with a chic version for the wives.

“It is the Italian people who will decide whether Berlusconi is a legitimate leader or not,” said Franco Frattini, the Foreign Minister, dismissing what he said were baseless attacks by foreign media. Mr Berlusconi remained defiant.“What counts are realities, not calumnies,” he said, angrily condemning reports that Italy would be expelled from the G8 and replaced by Spain.

The jury was still out on whether the summit would be deemed a success. The Government, said Corriere della Sera, had made an “enormous effort” to relocate the event — originally scheduled for Sardinia — at the last minute. But Mr Berlusconi’s behaviour towards women and resulting attacks on him were “a delegitimisation” that damaged Italy’s image, it said, and his troubles were far from over.