Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has died at the age of 86.

The billionaire media tycoon suffered several bouts of ill health in recent years.

He was admitted to hospital in Milan on Friday and was treated in intensive care for a lung infection related to leukaemia.

Doctors said he was suffering from chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia, which is a rare type of blood cancer.

They said the illness was not acute.

Mr Berlusconi stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011 as Italy came close to a Greece-style debt crisis, facing several scandals, most notably around his notorious "bunga bunga" parties.

A decade ago, he was banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction stemming from dealings in his media empire, but the ban was lifted in 2018.

He returned to the Italian Senate after a national election last September.

Mr Berlusconi built Italy's largest commercial TV network and gained an international profile as the owner of the football club AC Milan.

He entered politics in 1994 after the previous political class was brought down by a corruption scandal.