Italy’s prime minister was fighting to stave off a collapse of his centre-right coalition government over European Union demands for more concrete economic reform measures in time for today’s highly-anticipated summit of eurozone leaders.

The demand came as European officials attempted to reach a final agreement on giving the eurozone’s €440bn rescue fund more firepower so that it can assist Italy by purchasing Italian bonds, lowering Rome’s borrowing rates, which are near 6 per cent.

While such EU assistance falls short of a full-scale Italian bail-out, senior European officials said it would come with tough new conditions, and that the demands on Silvio Berlusconi were the beginning of a more intrusive effort by Italy’s eurozone partners to ensure Rome convinces financial markets it is sincere about fiscal reforms.