Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 72, denied Sunday a report that he had taken ill on a flight back from Washington, insisting that he has the health of a 20-year-old man.

`I didn`t have any illness. I feel extremely well,` Berlusconi said during a telephone conversation with participants of a political congress in Verona, Italy, that was broadcast by Sky TG24 television.

`I am handling events with the strength of a 20-year-old man,` he said.

Berlusconi said he was unable to participate in the Verona meeting due to a previous engagement that he needed to attend on his return from Washington, where he took part Saturday in a world summit on the global financial crisis.

The Italian Agi news agency, citing an official from the Verona congress, had reported that the prime minister had taken ill on his plane back from Washington.

Berlusconi`s spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, also denied the report.

The prime minister `calmly came down the airplane in Milan. I talked to him a few minutes ago. And at 12:30 pm (1130 GMT), he addressed the congress by telephone,` Bonaiuti told ANSA news agency.

Berlusconi briefly fell ill after giving a speech in June, a month after returning to power.

When he was leader of the conservative opposition, Berlusconi became ill at a political rally in May 2007.

In November 2006, he collapsed while giving a speech in a stuffy sports hall and travelled to the United States the following month, where he underwent surgery to be fitted with a pacemaker.