(ANSA) - Milan, December 14 - Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi asked to see the morning papers first thing Monday after a "quiet" night in hospital with a broken nose and split lip following Sunday's assault in central Milan.

"He had a fairly quiet night, apart from a bad headache, and was very eager to see the papers," said spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti.

Berlusconi, 73, was hit in the face with a marble statuette of the Milan Duomo by a man with mental-health problems after a rally in Piazza Duomo where he issued a fresh attack on an alleged leftist judicial conspiracy to bring him down.

The premier's facial injuries, which included a chipped tooth, will not require surgery, doctors said Monday.

They said they would release a full medical bulletin early Monday afternoon.

Berlusconi's personal doctor, Alberto Zingrillo, said the premier would be kept under observation for "one or two more days" and it would take him some three weeks to make a full recovery.

Monday's papers issued warnings about "a climate of hatred" in Italian politics and urged the centre right and centre left to calm tensions that have been rising since the premier's angry reaction to a Constitutional Court October ruling that struck down an immunity law and reactivated two corruption and fraud trials against the premier.

Centre-right politicians attacked former graftbuster Antonio Di Pietro, now the leader of an opposition party, for suggesting that Berlusconi had contributed to the ugly mood with his attacks on the Court and President Giorgio Napolitano and his pledge to reform the Constitution to rein in judges and beef up government powers.

The leader of the largest opposition party, Democratic Party chief Pierlugi Bersani, visited the premier at San Raffaele hospital to voice his solidarity.

As he went in, a woman shouted: "You stirred them up".

Napolitano, for his part, has urged "every effort" to "stop the spiral" of political tensions.

The attack was universally condemned and Berlusconi also received messages of support from Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, a close friend.

On Monday French President Nicolas Sarkozy had "a long and cordial" phone conversation with Berlusconi, sources said.

Also visiting Monday was the Speaker of the Lower House, Gianfranco Fini.

It was the first private conversation between the two this month as relations between the co-founders of the centre-right People of Freedom party have become increasingly strained and even spurred speculation the government might split.

Fini last week came out strongly against the premier's attacks on the Constitutional Court and Napolitano, stressing the need to uphold the institutions.

The media speculated over the weekend the House Speaker might join an anti-Berlusconi alliance, but Fini has dismissed such suggestions.

He left the hospital without talking to reporters. The attacker, 42-year-old engineer Massimo Tartaglia, was in isolation in a Milan jail facing charges of attacking a public official.

Court sources said he offered a "full confession" but did not give a motive for the assault.

Tartaglia's father has said he was "astonished" at his son's act.

Facebook pages have sprung up in support of Tartaglia and the interior ministry plans to ask the social networking website to shut them down.

Security around the premier has been stepped up since he received threats in October and Facebook pages saying Let's Kill Berlusconi.

On that occasion, Facebook asked the groups to change the name of their pages but allowed them to continue to post.

Meanwhile, a large placard outside the hospital, wreathed in the Italian flag, said: "Premier, real Italians are with you". MPs have asked why the premier's beefed-up security detail was still unable to prevent the attack. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni is meeting with security chiefs in Milan and is expected to address a press conference Monday afternoon.

One intelligence source told ANSA there had been "worrying gaps" in the systems set up to protect the premier. Police were said to be investigating possible threats among Tartaglia's circle of friends but he has been described as a loner who has been seeing a psychiatrist for ten years.

Sunday's attack was the second public assault on Berlusconi in five years.

In December 2004 he was hit by a man with a camera tripod in Rome's Piazza Navona.

He suffered minor bruising and did not require hospitalisation.