Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said he will not step down despite a ruling by the country's Constitutional Court that he does not have immunity from prosecution while he is in office.
The court decision means that Mr Berlusconi will, most likely, have to face charges in connection with corruption and bribery allegations.
Mr Berlusconi's advisors say he is not going to attempt to change the law to restore immunity.
A defiant Mr Berlusconi slammed the court as primarily 'left-wing' and vowed to see out his five-year mandate won in April 2008, saying he had the support of 70% of the Italian people.
The right-wing media tycoon also hit out at the media, which he said was '72% left-wing', and questioned the impartiality of President Giorgio Napolitano.
However the office of Napolitano, a former communist, responded by saying he 'is on the side of the constitution, and he exercises his duties with absolute impartiality, in a spirit of loyal cooperation with the institutions.'
Mr Berlusconi now faces at least two legal battles.
In one case, he is accused of paying his former tax lawyer, Briton David Mills, €400,000 to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s. Mills, who was tried separately, is appealing a guilty verdict delivered in February, for which he was handed a four-year jail term.
Another case involves allegations that Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset television empire inflated figures for its purchases of broadcasting rights in order to create slush funds.
