Defiant Silvio Berlusconi refuses IMF bailout and insists he will not resign despite mounting Italian debt crisis

Defiant Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi today refused an offer of financial support from the IMF - and insisted he would not resign.

The 75-year-old leader insisted he did not think his coalition government would collapse as they struggle to deal with their debt crisis.

With its colossal £1.6trillion debt, Italy is now at the eye of the storm and is paying 6.43 per cent to borrow money for ten years.

Resolute: Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi insists he will not resign as he speaks to journalists in Cannes at the G20 today

That figure is perilously close to the 7 per cent level where Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to seek a bailout.

But rejecting IMF help the Italian leader said at the end of the two-day G20 summit in Cannes: 'We don't believe this type of intervention is necessary.'

Italy has built up debts 120 per cent bigger than national income. Its fate is crucial to the eurozone, because its economy - the third-largest in the currency union - would be too expensive to bail out like Greece, Portugal and Ireland have been.

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