Berlusconi lawyers deny new sex charges

MILAN, Italy, April 13 (UPI) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers denied lurid accounts of sex parties published Wednesday.

Berlusconi is on trial in Milan on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute and making police free her from theft charges to conceal their supposed affair.

Wednesday morning, the Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica newspapers printed statements given to magistrates April 4 by teenage beauty contestants Ambra Battilana and Chiara Danese, who said they were coerced into a party at Berlusconi's villa outside Milan last August, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

They said the premier had girls kiss a statuette with a giant penis, strip and fondle him.

"The premier came on to us but we refused the statuette game," they said.

Battilana and Danese said they were being harassed with phone calls linking them with the alleged 33 prostitutes prosecutors charge had sex with Berlusconi.

The women said they were taken to the party after a screen test as TV weather girls for Berlusconi pal Emilio Fede, who is accused of procuring prostitutes for him.

Berlusconi's lawyers Niccolo Ghedini and Piero Longo said the account was "devoid of all foundation."