Meantime, the 87-year-old president urges the stability of the government, warning that "the damaging effects on our international relations and on financial markets would be seen immediately and could be impossible to recover from."

　　On May 31 Alma Shalabayeva and her daughter were seizured and taken into custody by Italian police in a nighttime raid into their house in Rome, and then deported to Kazakhstan escorted by Kazakh diplomats on a private jet.

　　According to Amnesty International, Mukhtar Ablyazov was granted asylum in the UK in 2011. He left Kazakhstan in 2009 and eventually took up residence in the UK, whose current whereabouts are unknown.

　　On Monday Italy's opposition party (the Centre-left) called on resignation of Interior Minister and deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano, accused of mishandling the case.

　　Alfano, the head of Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party (PdL), "could no be unaware of the expulsion," said the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) on Monday.

　　"If he didn't know, it means that in our country there is a parallel policy force that acts at its discretion and without informing its leaders" a spokesperson of the movement was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency.

　　Premier Enrico Letta assured the stability of the left-right coalition government on Wednesday, assuaging fears over a collapse. He dismissed the involvement of Alfano in the case, citing an internal review carried out by the chief of police, but critics recalled that, during the premiership years, Berlusconi boosted lucrative commercial ties between Italy and Kazakhstan, an oil producer since 1911.

　　"In the PD group, there was a serious discussion. The group was virtually unanimous (in supporting Alfano)," Democratic Party Secretary Guglielmo Epifani said today, "We have reiterated that we will support the government to carry on."