Rome, Nov 24 (IANS/AKI) Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to come under renewed pressure when prostitute Patrizia D'Addario publishes a book about their alleged sexual encounter at his official residence in Rome.

D'Addario was to due to release her biography Tuesday with further revelations about the premier's life.

D'Addario, 42, has called her book 'Prime minister, take your pleasure', a reference to a famous scene in a Federico Fellini film, Amarcord, in which a prostitute climbs into bed and invites an Italian aristocrat to have his way with her.

In the new book, D'Addario reportedly recounts how she was asked to attend two of the prime minister's private parties by Giampaolo Tarantini, a businessman from the southern town of Bari under investigation for procuring prostitutes, drug trafficking and corruption, as well as Berlusconi's 'needs for cuddles'.

'The prime minister needs cuddles. Having been an escort I thought I'd seen a fair few things, but this I'd never seen, 20 women for one man. Normally in an orgy you have roughly the same number of men and women, otherwise people get upset. But here the other men had no say. There was just one man with the right to copulate and that was the prime minister,' said an excerpt in D'Addario's book.

Ahead of the book's publication, Italian conservative daily 'Il Giornale', owned by the Berlusconi family, Monday attacked D'Addario and accused her of seeking to blackmail the premier. The daily said the proof was in the book.

Tarantini has told prosecutors he supplied more than 30 women for parties at Berlusconi's homes in Rome and Sardinia in 2008 and early 2009.

Some of them were paid 1,000 euros for 'sexual services' while others were paid expenses only. The prime minister has always denied paying women for sex or any other impropriety, and he is not under investigation.

D'Addario - who claims to have slept with Berlusconi in exchange of money and favours - said the premier 'knew' that she was a prostitute and tapes of their alleged encounters were released in July.

The Bari escort and other showgirls spoke about parties hosted by the 73-year-old Berlusconi at his private residences in Rome and Sardinia attended by dozens of young women, many of them allegedly prostitutes.

--IANS/AKI

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