Giorgia Meloni has said that she would probably kill someone if she had to give up cigarettes.

The Italian prime minister was challenged over her smoking habit at the Gaza summit in Egypt by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, who has vowed to make Turkey smoke-free.

“You look great. But I have to make you stop smoking,” he told Ms Meloni, to the laughter of Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

“It’s impossible,” the French president said during the meeting on the sidelines of the summit.

“I know, I know,” Ms Meloni said. “I don’t want to kill somebody.”

The 48-year-old recently revealed in a book that she had begun smoking again after quitting 13 years ago.

She also said that her tobacco habit had helped her bond with some foreign leaders, including Kais Saied, the president of Tunisia.