Putin takes Berlusconi for wild water ride

State television pictures showed Berlusconi and Putin zooming out to the plane on a speedboat.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Friday took the controls of a Russian amphibious jet as he joined his counterpart Vladimir Putin on the latest of the Russian strongman's tough-guy outings.

State television pictures showed Berlusconi and Putin -- both clad in matching orange life-jackets -- zooming out to the plane on a speedboat.

The jaunt was the final episode of Berlusconi's "private" visit to Saint Petersburg which has been ridiculed by the Italian left as the latest embarrassment by the scandal-tainted Italian prime minister.

They clambered aboard the Beriev Be-200, an amphibious plane used by the Russian emergency services, and Berlusconi sat himself down in the captain's chair.

- An extraordinary feeling of power - the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Berlusconi as saying while state television pictures showed him grinning broadly.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to AFP that Putin and Berlusconi had spent the day together and also held talks. He said the lake was near Saint Petersburg, Putin's home city.

- This is the very same plane that flew to Italy and fought fires there in the past - he said of the Be-200.

Putin's outward bound exploits have been a familiar feature of Russian political life over the last months.

He has been shown diving to the bottom of a Siberian lake on a mini submarine, plunging into a freezing river and riding a horse half naked in the steppe.

Putin and Berlusconi both boast of their close friendship. Putin in April 2008 stayed with Berlusconi at his villa on the Italian island of Sardinia.

The day earlier, Putin and Berlusconi held a video conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that had been trailed in advance as an important discussion of joint energy projects.

But they also found time for a macho discussion of the week's European football matches, a government transcript showed.