Paper posts 'Berlusconi and escort' tapes online

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private life was back in the spotlight when a leading news group posted audio tapes and transcripts of what it said were conversations with a female escort.

An Italian news weekly has obtained tape recordings of what it says was the night Berlusconi spent with a prostitute in which the premier is purportedly heard asking her to wait for him in bed while he showered.

The escort, Patrizia D'Addario, has said she taped her two encounters with Berlusconi at parties he threw for young women at his residence in Rome.

D'Addario says she and others were paid to attend these parties.

The left-leaning news weekly L'Espresso put what it said were the recordings on its website. Berlusconi is allegedly heard chatting with D'Addario about a bed in his residence.

The new twist in the Berlusconi saga ends a short break from media scrutiny of his private life while he basked in the success of this month's G8 summit.

La Repubblica daily has also posted conversations purportedly between Berlusconi and D'Addario.

Berlusconi has not denied that the woman went to his home but has said he did not know she was an escort.

One conversation posted on the websites was between D'Addario and Giampaolo Tarantini, a southern Italian businessman who is under investigation by magistrates on suspicion of corruption and abetting prostitution.

D'Addario says she made the tapes on her phone during her visits to the prime minister's Rome residence or while she was involved in telephone conversations.

Daniele Capezzone, spokesman for Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, called the posting of the conversations 'pathetic'.

Government minister Gianfranco Rotondi said the leftist media wanted to 'intimidate' the government by using 'the violation of every ethic' of journalism.

D'Addario, 42, has given the tapes to magistrates investigating the case against Tarantini.

Berlusconi, who is already dogged by a messy public divorce and reports of cavorting with underage girls, has in the past called the accusations by the newspapers 'trash and falsehoods'.

But L'Espresso and La Repubblica, both left-leaning and both owned by the same publishing house, said the tapes proved 'what D'Addario has been saying about the prime minister is true'.

The scandals have given the opposition a rare chance to land a blow on Berlusconi, who remains popular despite the economic crisis.

He said a recent poll gave his government a 57% approval rating.

La Repubblica, Italy's second-largest mainstream daily, has led the charge against Berlusconi and broken most of the stories on his private life, provoking the wrath of the premier and his aides.