Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi claims he is too old to have had all the sexual encounters he is accused of by prosecutors.

The 74-year-old faces trial in Milan over charges that he paid for sex with an under-age Moroccan girl and used his influence to try to cover it up.

In court documents, the prosecutors have identified 33 women, including the Moroccan, involved in parties at Berlusconi’s villa.

The premier told La Repubblica newspaper that “even though I am a little brat ... 33 girls in two months seems like too much even for a 30-year-old.”

He vows to participate in all hearings of his trial, which opens on April 6.

“It’s too much for anybody,” Mr Berlusconi said.

He insisted he had a girlfriend, whose identity is secret, who was always with him and would not have allowed what the prosecutors allege.

“She would have ripped my eyes out,” he said.

Mr Berlusconi spoke a few hours after Milan prosecutors notified three of his associates that an investigation into their alleged role in the scandal was closed.

The move paves the way for the prosecutors’ request for an indictment against the three, accused of procuring women for the premier and, for one suspect, handling payments.

Prosecutors’ documents detail how the soirées at Mr Berlusconi’s villa allegedly took place. They started with dinner; continued with “bunga bunga” parties in a room used as a disco, in which the women, sometimes masked, performed a striptease or an erotic dance “touching each other mutually, touching or being touched in their intimate areas by Silvio Berlusconi”; and culminated with Mr Berlusconi’s choice of a sex partner or partners.

Mr Berlusconi told the news-paper: “I could not believe my eyes” when he read the reports. He said “the girls were just shaking a leg in the disco – alone, as I’ve never liked dancing.”

The premier also rejected allegations that money changed hands via bank transfers, saying, “How can it be that someone pays for a sexual performance via bank transfer?”

He said he was just trying to help people in need, taking care of everything from dentist and surgery bills to university fees.

Paying for sex is not a crime in Italy, but it is if the prostitute is under the age of 18.

The Moroccan teen, Karima el-Mahroug, known by her nickname Ruby the Heartbreaker, turned 18 in November, but was a minor at the time of the alleged encounters.

Mr Berlusconi is also accused of abusing his influence when he called police in May to get Ruby out of custody in Milan, where she had been held for an unrelated theft.

The prosecutors say the premier sought to keep his sexual relation with the girl secret. Mr Berlusconi has said he intervened because he believed Ruby was the niece of then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and wanted to prevent a diplomatic incident.

“I can swear that a week before, I had spoken with Mubarak about this girl for at least 15 minutes,” Mr Berlusconi said. “The interpreters and fellow dinner participants can confirm it.”