Thaindian News

London, Aug 4 (IANS) Controversial Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi hosted a ‘bunga bunga’ party earlier this week, Italian media reported Thursday.

Seventy-four-year-old Berlusconi is already embroiled in allegations of paying dozens of showgirls to attend the bunga bunga parties - which is said to refer to a crude after-dinner sex act - at his luxury villa, the Daily Mail reported.

Last Sunday, as per Thursday’s Italian media reports, 20 women were seen entering Berlusconi’s villa at Arcore in a fleet of cars with guests not leaving until 2 a.m.

The women were said to have “used more caution” than normal when entering the villa so as not to attract attention although the identity of the women was not known.

Berlusconi is presently facing a charge of having sex with an underage prostitute after it emerged one of the guests at such parties, held last year, was just 17 years old.

Besides the sex charge, which centres on Moroccan-born belly dancer Karima El Mahroug, the media tycoon-turned-politician Berlusconi is also accused of abuse of office. He allegedly used his position to secure the release of El Mahroug - also known as Ruby the Heartstealer - from police custody.

In Italy, the age of consent is 14 but paying a woman under 18 for sex is seen as prostitution with a minor and punishable by up to three years in jail while abuse of office carries a maximum 12-year term.

The latest allegations have emerged just hours before Berlusconi is due to give a make or break speech before the Italian parliament to calm jitters over the current economic crisis in the country.

Italy, the third largest economy in the Eurozone, is faced with a financial meltdown. The country has an estimated national debt of around 1.1 trillion pounds ($1.8 trillion), which equates to 103.7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).