Italy opposition grills Berlusconi over woman

The leader of Italy's centre-left opposition demanded yesterday that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi publicly clear up the nature of his relationship with an 18-year-old woman.

"A politician has a duty to respond and a duty to tell the truth," Dario Franceschini, head of the opposition Democratic Party, told a rally in northern Italy.

At the heart of the controversy is the nature of Mr Berlusconi's relationship with Noemi Letizia, an aspiring model whose 18th birthday party Mr Berlusconi attended in Naples last month and who is at the centre of a divorce request by his wife.

The left-leaning Rome newspaper La Repubblica, Italy's second largest mainstream newspaper, on May 14 published 10 questions it says the 72-year-old Prime Minister should answer about the nature of his relationship with the woman.

Mr Franceschini said newspapers had accused Mr Berlusconi of discrepancies in his statements and urged him to be transparent.

"Those who have political responsibilities must accept that their lives are x-rays because that's the way it is everywhere," Mr Franceschini told reporters.

Mr Berlusconi's spokesman, Cabinet under-secretary Paolo Bonaiuti, said in a statement that the opposition was "clinging to gossip" in order to hurt Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition ahead of next month's European elections.

Mr Berlusconi has denied he has been involved with the woman, who was a minor when they first met.

"It's a lie," Mr Berlusconi said in an interview on Italy's main television talk show earlier this month.

Mr Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario expressed her anger at Mr Berlusconi's presence at the birthday party when she announced that she was seeking a divorce.