Daughter wades in on Berlusconi

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The daughter of scandal-tainted Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi says politicians should have moral values, in an apparent dig at her father.

Barbara Berlusconi told Vanity Fair magazine that public officials should "safeguard" the values they promoted.

She also said that she was amazed at the attention her father had lavished on an 18-year-old aspiring model.

The Italian leader has denied a string of lurid revelations and allegations, while also saying he is "no saint".

In the latest incident, left-leaning Italian magazine L'Espresso published transcripts and audio of an alleged encounter between Mr Berlusconi, 72, and an escort, Patrizia D'Addario.

The tapes follow pictures of parties at one of his private villas in Sardinia.

The prime minister's lawyers insist the tapes are fakes and have insisted he never paid for sex.

I have never frequented elderly men. I have no experience of such psychological ties Barbara Berlusconi

Barbara Berlusconi, 25, told the weekly that she thought politicians should uphold, in private, the values they praise in public life.

"Political representatives who are called to govern well, make society prosper, are also held to safeguard the values they express, possibly raise them," his daughter - the eldest of three children by his estranged wife, Veronica - told the magazine.

"So I don't believe a politician can allow a distinction between his public and private life."

Still popular

Ms Berlusconi said she was amazed by details of the alleged relationship between her father and 18-year-old Noemi Letizia.

Mr Berlusconi attended her birthday party, bringing a 6,000 euro ($8,600) necklace, prompting his wife Veronica to seek a divorce and suggest her husband was "unwell".

The prime minister initially said he had only gone to Ms Letizia's party because she was the daughter of a family friend, but photographs later emerged of them together at social events last year, when she was 17.

He also confirmed she had stayed at his villa in Sardinia.

"It's something that has never been part of my life," Barbara Berlusconi said. "I have never frequented elderly men. I have no experience of such psychological ties."

The weeks of scandals have only slightly dented the Italian leader's popularity. He still enjoys a 49% approval rating and a majority in both houses of parliament.