Silvio Berlusconi has denied he is suffering from health problems despite his appearance on returning to Rome this week after two weeks closeted at his mansion near Milan with scarlet fever.

Mr Berlusconi looked puffy faced yesterday while attending ceremonies for Armed Forces Day alongside President Napolitano. He has regular cortisone injections for chronic neck pain caused - according to his own account - by cervical arthritis.

In his first response today to questions about his private life posed by La Repubblica, Mr Berlusconi said that despite the scarlet fever and neck pain he was in robust health.

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