**Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is penning new love songs while he recuperates after an assault which left him with a broken nose and two broken teeth.**Italian media say Mr Berlusconi, 73, is working on a new CD of songs with Mariano Apicella, a guitarist who has accompanied him on three albums before.
The pair are reported to have finished eight songs out of 12 which will appear on a CD to be released in the new year.
Mr Berlusconi is convalescing at his home in Villa San Martino, in Milan.
He spent four nights in hospital after the 13 December attack in the northern city, in which a man struck him in the face with a replica model of Milan cathedral.
Since then, the billionaire prime minister has kept out of the public eye.
The new song titles include: There Is Love, But If I Lose You and Stay With Me.
Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul, worked in his youth as a cruise ship crooner. He struck up a friendship with Apicella, a Neapolitan, at the Vesuvius Hotel in Naples eight years ago.
The prime minister has had a turbulent year, marked by allegations about his friendship with a teenage model and about escort girls attending parties at his residences.