Silvio Berlusconi leaves hospital covered in bandages

Mr Berlusconi, 73, waved to photographers as he swept out of Milan's San Raffaele hospital in a motorcade.

It came amid reports he will have cosmetic surgery in Switzerland to erase all trace of the injuries he sustained in the assault.

A large bandage covered part of the left side of his face and his nose, which was broken when a souvenir replica of Milan's cathedral was thrown at him as he mingled among a crowd of supporters.

Massimo Tartaglia, 42, an electronics engineer, has been held in prison since the attack on Sunday.

After leaving the hospital Mr Berlusconi was driven into central Milan where he endured three hours of surgery with his personal dentist.

The dentist, Dr Massimo Mazza, rebuilt an upper incisor and repaired another tooth damaged in the assault.

The prime minister then went to his villa in Arcore, near Milan, where he will rest for two weeks.

The media mogul is then expected to travel to a clinic in Gravesano in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

Mr Berlusconi underwent cosmetic surgery to his face at the luxurious Ars Medica clinic, near Lugano, in 2003.

In a statement released by his office, Mr Berlusconi said that something good could come out of the attack.

"I will remember two things about these days: the hatred of a few and the love of many, many Italians," he said.

"To both I make the same promise: we will push forward with even greater determination along the road to freedom.

"We owe it to our people, we owe it to our democracy in which neither the violence of stones nor the even worse one of words will prevail.

He said he had been encouraged by the messages of support and sympathy he had received from Italy's centre-Left opposition.

"If what happened leads to a greater awareness of the need for more civil and honest language in political dialogue, then this pain will not have been in vain."