33 girls in 60 days?

PM Silvio Berlusconi yesterday declared he was too over the hill to have bedded 33 women.

The Italian tycoon, 74, said: "Even though I'm a bit of a rascal - 33 girls in two months is too many, even for a 30-year-old."

He hit out weeks before facing trial in Milan over his infamous Bunga Bunga parties. Prosecutors say he paid a belly dancer dubbed Ruby the Heart-stealer for under-age sex.

Karima El Mahroug was 16 at the time - below the legal age for prostitution.

In a newspaper interview, media billionaire Berlusconi - whose wife is divorcing him - admitted giving cash and gifts to beauties he invited round out of generosity, saying: "I am like a charity." One bank transfer was for a girl's parents in "dire straits".

Prosecutors claim that "stripteases and erotic dances" at his parties were a prelude to sex.

But he said: "They were carefree, elegant dinners."

And Berlusconi said he had a girlfriend who was always there - admitting something he has previously denied.

He refused to identify her but joked: "If I had done everything I am said to have done, she would have gouged my eyes out."

by:Staff and Agencies