A bomb was defused overnight near the Sardinian holiday villa of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hours after a visit by Britain's Tony Blair, Italian police said on Wednesday.
A local anarchist group issued a warning and claimed responsibility for planting the bomb, which police described as a low-impact, home-made device.
Security was stepped up around the prime minister's villa, but Berlusconi's office said his holiday schedule was unchanged despite the threat.
"There have been no alterations. He is calm and remaining in Sardinia," his press office said.
A caller claiming to be from the Proletarian Nuclei for Communism (NPC), a radical group active on the island, phoned the Sardinian newspaper L'Unione Sarda at 10:45 pm on Tuesday warning of two bombs.
The caller said one had been planted in a large bin near the centre of the tourist town Portorotondo, a couple of kilometres (about a mile) from Berlusconi's sprawling Villa Certosa.
"The other one - we're not telling you, go and find it. It's for Berlusconi," the voice said, according to a report in the national daily Corriere della Sera.
Police discovered the bomb in the bin and defused it soon after the warning. Corriere said it had been set to go off at 2 am.
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