Pope calls for 'ethical renewal' in Italy

Pope Benedict on Thursday called for an "ethical renewal" in Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is battling a scandal over parties with prostitutes and showgirls.

In a telegram to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano ahead of a visit to his native Germany, the pope expressed his "hope of an ever-more intense ethical renewal for the good of beloved Italy".

The pontiff made no direct reference to the sex scandal which has engulfed the 74 year-old premier in recent days just as financial troubles have raised fears of a Greek-style debt crisis.

But his comments carried a clear resonance amid a barrage of newspaper coverage of the goings-on.

Wiretapped conversations have shown Berlusconi boasting of "doing eight girls" in one night, organising trysts with prostitutes at his private residences and making vulgar jokes with the businessman suspected of supplying the women.

That comes against the backdrop of growing anger in Italy over a privileged political class seen as corrupt and unwilling to share in sacrifices as Italians deal with painful austerity measures.

The Vatican, which wields enormous influence in staunchly Catholic Italy, weighed in on Berlusconi's sex scandals in January as well, when it called on Italian politicians to show "robust morality".