Businessman: I paid women to have sex with Berlusconi

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of sleeping with two women who were provided for him by a businessman trying to curry favour.

Gianpaolo Tarantini said he procured 30 women for Mr Berlusconi for 18 parties over five months. Two were paid to have sex with him.

The revelations come from a statement Mr Tarantini gave to police in July.

He is under investigation for allegedly paying women to go to Mr Berlusconi's villas in Rome and Sardinia between September last year and January this year. Some of the women were paid €1,000 for "sexual services", while others were paid expenses only.

In the newspaper Corriere della Sera, which published extracts of the statement, Mr Tarantini is quoted as saying: "I wanted to get to know prime minister Berlusconi and to that end I incurred significant expense to enter into his confidence.

"Knowing of his interest in the female sex, I brought him girls who I presented as my friends - keeping quiet about the fact that I had paid them."

He said he wanted to "establish a network in the public administration because I thought that these days girls and cocaine were the key to success in society".

Mr Tarantini, 36, said that one of the girls, Vanessa Di Meglio, was paid to have sex with the prime minister.

He told prosecutors: "If the chance arises she is not averse to being paid for sexual services. I supplied Di Meglio to prime minister Berlusconi for sex on two occasions in Rome, 5 September and 8 October (last year)."

He also alleged another woman, Maria Teresa Di Nicolo, 38, had sex with Mr Berlusconi at his official Rome residence on 23 September.

Two escort girls, Sonia Carpendone and Roberta Nigro, who passed themselves off as sisters, had been paid "expenses" but he did not say whether or not they actually had sex with the prime minister.

Another escort girl, Ioana Visan, had been offered money "in case she had sex with Berlusconi" and she had "stayed the night at his house" on 8 October.

The prime minister has tried to paint himself as being the victim of "ferocious attacks". He has denied paying women for sex or any other impropriety, and is not under investigation.

At a meeting of his party's youth wing yesterday he said: "I think Italians recognise themselves in me. I am one of them. I was poor, I am interested in the things that interest them.

"I love football, I smile, I love others and, above all else, beautiful women."