EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - In a fit of pique, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has threatened to block the upcoming European Council - the top summit of all of Europe's premiers and presidents - if commission spokespeople do not learn to keep quiet.

Commission spokespeople and even commissioners themselves must not speak publicly on "any topic," Mr Berlusconi demanded when speaking reporters in Gdansk during a ceremony marking the start of the Second World War.

PM Berlusconi was in Gdansk with other European leaders marking the start of the Second World War

The "voice of Europe," he said, must be expressed exclusively by the president of the commission or his immediate spokesperson. If this did not happen, he added, he would "block the functioning of the European Council."

Mr Berlusconi, furious at the commission's request for clarification by Italy concerning the deportation of immigrants, took out his anger at the commission spokesperson who had been responding to a question by a journalist about the refugees.