Former Italian premier Romano Prodi on Friday said he was contrary to any law restricting the use of wiretapping despite becoming the latest victim of leaked telephone conversations.
''As far as I'm concerned, I have no objection to all my telephone calls being made public,'' he said, after weekly magazine Panorama published transcripts of calls he made while prime minister in June 2007.
Prodi appears to talk about helping out family members in the excerpts, but he has dismissed the calls as having ''no relevance from a juridical or criminal point of view''.
''I wouldn't want the artificial creation of this political case to feed efforts to give life, in the shortest time possible, to a law on wiretapping that could deprive the magistrature of a tool that in many cases is indispensable for bringing events to light,'' he said.
Panorama is owned by Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his family as part of their media empire.
But earlier on Friday Berlusconi, himself a victim of past wiretaps, waded in to the row to express his ''absolute solidarity'' with Prodi and urged parliament to pass a bill that would regulate the use of taps.
''Parliament must promptly intervene to stop the perpetuation of these abuses, which have such deep repercussions on the life of citizens and on fundamental freedoms,'' he said.
In June the cabinet approved the text of the wiretapping bill, which includes jail terms for journalists who publish leaked transcripts and public officials who leak the content of taped conversations.
The bill also requires three magistrates instead of one to authorize taps, which would have a three month limit.
Opposition politicians have said the proposals would clip prosecutors' wings by depriving them of an essential tool in investigations, while the country's journalists' union has said it would hamper freedom of information.
