The fiercely pro-Israeli Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was among the guests at the controversy-filled Arab League summit in Libya with the supposed aim of forming a unified strategy against Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement plans in Palestinian territories.

At one point, according to reports, Berlusconi, whose country ruled Libya for over three decades after 1911, stooped to kiss Gaddafi’s hand upon arrival at the summit.

Fourteen Arab leaders and three foreign quests attended the two-day summit, which kicked off on Saturday in the Mediterranean city of Sirte.

Italy has become a firm European supporter of Libya since a 2008 formal apology to Tripoli for the decades of colonial rule. The apology led to a number of accords which has cemented bilateral ties.

Notably, Rome pressured Switzerland to lift a visa ban blacklisting 188 prominent Libyans, saying that Italy and several other European countries in the Schengen border-free zone would circumvent it.

In another major gaffe, the eccentric Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi suggested one of his chief guests, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, was overweight.

In response to the emir’s protest that Arab leaders had achieved “too little,” Gaddafi said he doubted the Qatari leader could do better but that he was “better than me at filling a void.” The little jab was followed by a burst of laughter.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were also among the foreign guests.