Weekly alleges plot in Berlusconi call girl scandal

A call girl who claims to have spent a night with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was part of a "plot" to discredit him, a weekly owned by the billionaire Prime Minister's family charged yesterday.

An investigation has begun into the alleged plot in southern Bari, the hometown of elite prostitute Patrizia D'Addario, Panorama reported.

The Ansa news agency said, however, that sources at the Bari prosecutor's office denied the report.

"Bari prosecutors have no investigation under way into the existence of a hypothetical plot to compromise the reputation of Silvio Berlusconi through Patrizia D'Addario," Ansa said.

Ms D'Addario became a household name in Italy after she revealed that she had accepted €2,000 from the flamboyant Prime Minister's party planner Gianpaolo Tarantini to spend the night with Mr Berlusconi.

As part of an investigation into Mr Tarantini for allegedly abetting prostitution and drug dealing, she provided excerpts from secretly recorded conversations between her and Mr Berlusconi on the night in November 2008, which were leaked to the press.

Panorama's unsourced report said Ms D'Addario "was selected and delivered" to Mr Tarantini "in order to compromise the reputation of the Prime Minister and to cause him political difficulties."

The alleged investigation into "what appears to be a veritable plot" against Mr Berlusconi involves "magistrates, politicians, journalists and businessmen in various ways," Panorama wrote, without elaborating.

"It is logical to think that they could be found in the camp opposed to the People of Freedom," it said, referring to Mr Berlusconi's centre-right party.

Ms D'Addario late on Thursday denied "once again all aspects of such a theory," Ansa reported from Bari.

"I hope that the prosecutor's office will clarify the whole affair as soon as possible to remove any doubts," she added.

Ms D'Addario said last year that she came forward because Mr Berlusconi did not honour a promise to help her with a real estate venture that would have allowed her to change professions.