Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's daughter has described how the tycoon groomed his children early on for the tough world of business - with the help of the board game Monopoly.

Asked in an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera yesterday what her favourite game was when she was little, Barbara Berlusconi, 20, answered: "Monopoly... Once we played it all together. Obviously, Daddy won."

Italy's richest man built his wealth as a real estate developer in Milan before moving into the media business.

As Prime Minister, his gaffes have often made headlines - he caused a minor diplomatic incident in June when he said he used "playboy tactics" to persuade Finnish President Tarja Halonen that Italy, not Finland, should host a new European Union agency.

"He can be gossipy," Ms Berlusconi said when pressed to name her father's weaknesses. "Rather than gaffes, they are concepts that are not expressed in a very articulated way," she told the paper's weekly magazine.

Several of Mr Berlusconi's children are employed as managers at his Fininvest holding company and broadcaster Mediaset. Ms Berlusconi sits on the board of Fininvest.