Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi could have been killed in Sunday's attack at a Milan rally, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Monday. "Yesterday Silvio Berlusconi risked being seriously wounded or killed," Maroni said after meeting security officials. Berlusconi's protection arrangements will be "re-assessed" in light of the attack by a reportedly mentally ill man who broke the premier's nose and two teeth, Maroni said.

"The people tasked with Berlusconi's safety are professionals," he said, "but I must stress that the secret service is in charge, not the interior ministry". He said the premier was "fully entitled" to meet and greet supporters, as he did at Sunday's rally, but these events would be watched more carefully in future. A range of measures to ensure greater safety at open-air rallies would be weighed, he said. Entering the political row about the incident, Maroni rapped the chairman of the opposition Democratic Party, Rosy Bindi, for suggesting that Berlusconi's recent verbal onslaughts on the judiciary and criticism of Italian president Giorgio Napolitano might have helped create a dangerously overheated atmosphere. But Maroni said he shared a call from Napolitano for Italy's two main political blocs to "return to an atmosphere of mutual respect". Berlusconi, 73, is being kept in hospital for at least two days after the attack, which grabbed headlines around the world.