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.

ROME, Aug 19, 2007 (AFP) - Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wants to form a new right-wing party to 'heal Italy,' according to a newspaper report, but Berlusconi on Sunday denied he was planning the move.

The new Liberty Party would group moderates who belong to the country's main right-wing parties, including Berlusconi's Forza Italia, La Stampa newspaper reported, citing sources close to the 70-year-old opposition leader.

Berlusconi told the ANSA news agency the report was an 'invention' and that Forza Italia was 'irreplaceable'.