Berlusconi's mother, doting matriarch, dies at 97

ROME, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's mother died on Sunday, aged 97, news agencies reported, depriving the Italian tycoon of a doting matriarch and a valuable political asset as he faces a possible chance for re-election to lead the country.

"Mamma Rosa", as she was known to Italians, was a doughty supporter of her ambitious son who rose from her middle class home to be Italy's richest man and twice its prime minister.

Politicians rushed to offer condolences after news was posted on the Web site of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party that Rosa "passed away peacefully" at her Milan home.

She died without seeing whether the 71-year-old Berlusconi could achieve a third election win -- something polls say he is likely to if elections are called following the collapse of Romano Prodi's fragile centre-left coalition last month.

"He works like a slave from morning to night and in return just gets insults," she said in a rare newspaper interview given shortly before the 2006 election which Berlusconi lost by a tiny margin to Prodi.

At that election she was accompanied at the polling booth by Silvio, kissing her eldest son's hand for photographers.

On the record as loathing Prodi -- her son's arch rival throughout a political career which began in the early 1990s -- the ailing Rosa was able to enjoy the centre-left leader's downfall on TV.

"It cheered her up, but then she was immediately worried about the amount of work Silvio would have to take on. That's the way all mothers are," said Silvio's brother Paolo.

In predominantly Catholic Italy, where the mother figure is revered as almost sacred, Rosa, a widow since Berlusconi's bank employee father died in 1989, was an electoral asset.

Portrayed as the archetypal loving mother, her apartment was decorated with a marble statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, a gift from Silvio. He told her it represented them.

Despite being the matriarch of a family whose business empire includes Italy's main private broadcaster Medisaet, movies, publishing, insurance and soccer team AC Milan, Rosa was portrayed as a prudent housewife of modest means.

"I can't stand Prodi," she said. "Before he introduced the euro I gave myself the Christmas present of four pairs of socks, spending 12,000 lire (about 6 euro or $8.90). The next year I only bought three pairs and the price had doubled."

(Editing by Matthew Tostevin)