New Berlusconi scandal

Silvio Berlusconi's political career is once again in jeopardy after prosecutors today accused him of paying a "significant" number of women to have sex with him at parties he hosted last year.

Investigators also claim to have "ample investigative evidence" that Berlusconi provided flats for the women in return for sex at a Milan housing complex he built in the 1970s before entering politics.

He is already under investigation on suspicion of paying for sex with one of his guests, Karima el-Mahroug, a Moroccan belly dancer known as Ruby Rubacuori, when she was 17 – an offence under Italian law. He is also suspected of pressuring police into freeing her from custody after she was arrested on suspicion of theft last May.

Prosecutors outlined their case today in a document sent to parliament to seek permission to raid the Milan offices of a Berlusconi accountant they suspect of handling payments to the women.

The prime minister emerged with his popularity intact after accusations in 2009 that he held similar parties in Rome and slept with a prostitute. But with his parliamentary majority now under threat, the recent overturning of an immunity law and a criminal conviction now possible, the latest scandal may prove more damaging and lead to elections this spring.

"Scandals are piling up and this is not the moment to try to win over new support in parliament," said Raffaele De Mucci, a political science professor at Rome's Luiss University.

"This time the prosecutors' charges are really serious and his popularity is just not going to be a factor."

After Berlusconi made a TV appeal to Italians yesterday, accusing investigators of trying to overthrow his government, supporters today urged him to refuse their request that he submit to questioning.

In his broadcast, Berlusconi denied having ever paid for sex and cast doubt on the reliability of what police may have overheard his guests saying during wiretaps on their phones.

Some of those conversations, which are contained in the prosecutors' report, were relayed by Italian media today.

"You can't even imagine what goes on there," said one of women after a party at Berlusconi's residence. "The papers say a lot less than the truth, even when they massacre him."

One woman called the residence a "whore house". Another was reported as saying: "You are either ready for everything or you get a taxi and leave."

Nicole Minetti, a former TV showgirl, and Emilio Fede, a news presenter on one of Berlusconi's channels, both of whom are under investigation for recruiting women for the politician's parties, are on tape discussing the price of oral sex, reported L'Espresso magazine.

In one reported conversation, Mahroug claims that Berlusconi was fully aware she was only 17, and in another states: "I spoke with Silvio and I said I wanted to get out with something. Five million against the darkening of my name."

In October Mahroug told a former boyfriend Berlusconi had contacted her. "He called me, telling me 'Ruby, I'll give you as much money as you want, I'll pay you, I'll cover you in gold, but the important thing is that you hide everything; don't tell anyone anything."

Speculation was also rife as to the identity of the partner Berlusconi claimed he had been seeing since he and his wife separated in 2009. Berlusconi told TV viewers that his new partner would never have allowed him to host the erotic parties that investigators describe.