A row blew up between the government and the judiciary on Tuesday after Italian newspapers published phone taps involving key figures in the ruling centre-left coalition.
Among the published extracts were reported conversations in which Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema and Democratic Left party leader Piero Fassino spoke to the head of a bank caught up in a corruption scandal.
Although the extracts provided no evidence of crimes being committed, they are sensitive because the Left has been accused by the Silvio Berlusconi-led centre right of actively taking sides in a banking take-over bid.
Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato described Tuesday's publication of the extracts as a peculiarly "Italian madness" and voiced exasperation over the failure of the judiciary to keep them under wraps.
"Whatever is said on a phone, if it happens to be linked to a trial, it all comes out. Its relevance is not an issue. Clearly the system isn't working," he said.
"It's outrageous that all this stuff should come out of judicial organs," he added.
His outburst prompted a stiff response from the Milan appeals court chiefs, responsible for the offices from which the phone taps were leaked.
"The two sides in the legal process were legitimately allowed to view the transcripts," the court said in a statement, stressing that rules designed to prevent publication had been observed rigorously.
At the centre of the dispute was a controversy over the Unipol bank's failed 2005 bid to take over the much bigger Banca Bazionale del Lavoro.
The bid foundered amid regulatory probes and judicial enquiries and former Unipol chairman Giovanni Consorte was placed under investigation for market-rigging.
Unipol is controlled by Italy's food and agricultural cooperatives which are traditionally close to the Democratic Left (DS), the biggest party in Prodi's coalition.
'LIST OF PRECAUTIONS'.
In one of the transcripts published on Tuesday, Foreign Minister and DS no.2 D'Alema is quoted as telling Consorte: "You should make yourself a list of precautions...yes...in communications".
Some commentators have interpreted this as D'Alema advising Consorte to pay more attention to the public announcements connected to the take-over bid.
For critics in the centre right, this shows the DS party was actively involved in the banking operation and was therefore crossing the line separating politics from business.
But other commentators suggest D'Alema might have been advising Consorte to be careful about what he said on the phone because so many telephone lines were tapped.
In another conversation, Consorte is informing D'Alema about the state of negotiations between Unipol's partners in the financial operation. D'Alema is quoted as encouraging the manager to press head, saying: "Go on! Give us something to dream about!"
In an extract involving DS leader Piero Fassino, the politician reportedly asks Consorte for details of the take-over bid, saying: "How are we doing then?"
When Consorte asks him to keep the information to himself, Fassino replies: "I'm all buttoned up".
The DS leadership openly backed Unipol's July 2005 bid for BNL before it foundered amid regulatory probes and judicial enquiries. The bid received a final death blow in December 2005 when it was given a red light by the Bank of Italy.
Earlier transcripts involving Fassino were published in late 2005 embarrassed the party and prompted criticism from within about "excessive" contact with the world of business.
But investigators concluded that the conversation in itself contains no evidence of wrongdoing.
Fassino and D'Alema admitted over a year ago they had made political mistakes by backing the bid but again firmly denied any wrongdoing.
Consorte and two associates were found guilty of insider trading in a first trial and given suspended sentences. The appeals trial is to begin in November.
The transcripts of the new phone conversation were requested by the preliminary hearings judge in a different investigation order to better assess their relevance.
