Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced new trouble over his private life yesterday after media reports said he had entertained prostitutes at his homes.

But his lawyer hit back, saying that the billionaire Berlusconi could have as many women as he liked for nothing.

La Stampa and other papers said prosecutors in the southern city of Bari had evidence from four women hired by businessman Giampaolo Tarantini, an acquaintance of Mr Berlusconi who is being investigated for corruption along with his brother.

Bugging of Mr Tarantini's telephone revealed him offering money to escort girls to spend the night at Mr Berlusconi's residences in Rome and Sardinia, laying him open to charges of incitement to prostitution. One woman, Patrizia d'Addara, told the mass circulation Corriere della Sera that she had been paid €2,000 for each of two visits to Mr Berlusconi's house in Rome.

She claimed to have recorded her conversations with Mr Berlusconi and handed the tapes to magistrates investigating the Tarantinis.

Mr Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini, quoted in Corriere, scoffed at the idea that he might have paid for sex, saying, "I think he could have many women for free."

"If I wanted to make a good impression on Silvio Berlusconi and I appeared at his home with a beautiful companion whom I had paid, he would not have known that," Mr Ghedini added.

"And if one of these women were to have relations with him, he still would not know (she had been paid) and could not be implicated legally or morally."

The reports quoted aides to Mr Berlusconi as saying the Prime Minister viewed the latest revelations as "rubbish" and part of a plot to oust him, some three weeks before he is to chair the Group of Eight industrialised powers summit.

The 72-year-old Italian leader is already engulfed in scandal over his wife's decision to divorce him, his links to an aspiring teenage model and suggestive pictures taken at his Sardinia villa.

Hundreds of photos have been seized by Italian authorities after the premier filed a complaint to block their release, claiming they violated his right to privacy.