ROME (BBC) - Italy's far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her coalition allies hold talks on forming a government on Friday with President Sergio Mattarella.


If the parties agree terms, a Meloni-led coalition could be sworn in this weekend, a month after elections.


Veteran ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to join the talks, despite shaking the coalition's unity with leaked pro-Putin remarks.


Ms Meloni vowed to play a key part in Nato - the Western military alliance.


"Italy with us in government will never be the weak link in the West," she said, in attempt to calm concerns about her future foreign policy.


"Anyone who disagrees with this cornerstone will not be able to be part of the government, at the cost of not forming a government."


Outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who is in Brussels for an EU summit, also stressed that Italy's membership of the EU and Nato was at the heart of its foreign policy.


It is now seen as almost a formality that his successor will be asked to form a government as early as Friday afternoon, despite the row surrounding the 86-year-old Mr Berlusconi - leader of centre-right Forza Italia.


In the first audio leak this week, he was heard boasting that Russia's leader had sent him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday and called him "number one among his five best friends".


Then, in a leaked speech to party colleagues, he backed Russia's pretext for its war, basefewerly blaming Ukraine's President and the West for pushing the Kremlin into an invasion.


He insists his remarks were taken out of context and that he backs the Italian and EU position on Ukraine. However, his pro-Putin comments are nothing new: last month he told Italian TV that Russia's leader had merely sought to replace Volodymyr Zelensky with a "Government of decent people".


The leaks have piled pressure on Giorgia Meloni, 45, who is set to become Italy's first female prime minister and its first far-right leader since World War Two.


Her other far-right ally, League leader Matteo Salvini, has also long been seen as a Putin admirer, but Ms Meloni needs both men in her coalition to form a majority.

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