Choosing Silvio Berlusconi’s most memorable verbal mistakes is hard because there have been so many of them.

His three stints in office as prime minister have been littered with sexist quips, double-entendres and schoolboy pranks which one might expect from the cruise ship entertainer that he once was, but not from a national leader.

His penchant for flirting and putting his foot in his mouth may land him in trouble again at the G20 summit.

Only last week the 72-year-old self-made billionaire caused consternation by again making peculiar remarks about US President Barack Obama’s skin colour.

Having famously praised Mr Obama last year as “sun-tanned”, he said his response to the global economic crisis was different to that of the American president because “I’m paler”.

In February he was reportedly caught out joking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he “gave” him his Italian-born wife, Carla Bruni.

In January Mr Berlusconi caused outrage when he said that although he was considering deploying 30,000 troops to Italy’s cities, there would never be enough soldiers to protect Italy’s many “beautiful girls” from rape.

Women were again offended in the months before last year’s general election when Mr Berlusconi told an attractive young voter who questioned his economic record that the best way of climbing out of poverty was to marry a millionaire, “like my son”.

Conforming to the cliché about Italians, Mr Berlusconi’s politically incorrect remarks often revolve around women and sex.

He once boasted that he had used all his “playboy charms” to win over Finland’s female prime minister during a round of negotiations.

And he advised investors in New York to relocate to Italy because the secretaries were better looking than their American counterparts.

As he prepares to travel to London for the G20 summit, Mr Berlusconi remains, quite literally, the joker in the pack.