Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire businessman fighting for re-election as Italy's prime minister, last night accused his centre-left opponents of planning a socialist-style redistribution of wealth if they defeated him in next week's ballot.

"The left, especially the maximalist left, is proposing to make the professionalperson's son equal to the worker's son," Mr Berlusconi said in a televised debate with Romano Prodi, his centre-left challenger. "It wants to take away from the middle class and give to the working class."