Starlet tells of escort's night with Berlusconi

She is 23, beautiful and ambitious. And if her story turns out to be true, Barbara Montereale may prove to be the young starlet who brings about the downfall of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Montereale is the latest in a succession of young women who have testified to the private entertainments enjoyed by Berlusconi at his residence in Rome and his holiday villa in Sardinia.

Ever since the Prime Minister's wife, Veronica Lario, publicly accused him of "frequenting minors", the Italian media have revelled in tales of squads of handpicked showgirls, models and actresses flown in for summer parties and risque evenings at the Villa Grazioli in Rome.

According to Montereale, last November she travelled with Patrizia D'Addario, a former model and escort, to a dinner in Rome hosted by Berlusconi, and to his Sardinian retreat, Villa Certosa, in January. For making the Sardinia trip, she was paid €1000 ($2170) by hospital equipment vendor Giampaolo Tarantini, who is now under investigation by Bari investigators for abetting prostitution.

Montereale claims Berlusconi gave her "rings and necklaces that he said he designed" and a CD of Neapolitan love songs in Rome. After her stay in Sardinia, she left with a bag containing "a very generous sum of money".

She denied having sex with Berlusconi, but gave a graphic account of how the night with D'Addario in Rome had unfolded.

"Everyone knew at the dinner she was an escort," Montereale told La Repubblica. After dinner she said "the agreement was that Giampaolo [Tarantini] and I would leave Patrizia alone with the PM." D'Addario, returned to their hotel at 8am the next day.

"She told me she had had sexual relations with the Prime Minister," said Montereale. "She had not been paid. She wasn't interested in money because she wanted him to help her in relation to a hotel she wanted to build."

Asked to comment on the story, a spokesman for Berlusconi, Marco Ventura, said yesterday: "We have no comment; we have nothing to say."

But the aftershock of the women's visit has contributed to the sense of crisis now in danger of overwhelming Berlusconi's premiership.

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