Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, faces the conundrum this week of how to restore his government’s international image while fighting a re-election campaign in alliance with the political party that caused the damage.

At least 10 people were killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi last Friday in riots triggered by the deliberately provocative decision of Roberto Calderoli, a government minister, to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.