Berlusconi: I’ll quit if I lied about teenager

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, facing demands to explain his relationship with a teenage girl, denied yesterday he had had a “steamy affair” and said he would have to resign if caught lying about it.

The 72-year-old conservative leader’s relationship with an 18-year-old has become an explosive political issue in Italy after his wife Veronica demanded a divorce because of his womanising and said he was “not well”.

Berlusconi has denied any wrongdoing or lying in his apparently contradictory explanations of why he went to Noemi Letizia’s 18th birthday and gave her an expensive necklace. He has promised to explain it all in parliament, but has not set a date.