Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi dismissed calls to resign on Tuesday over reports he helped a 17-year-old girl who attended parties at his house, saying it was "better to like beautiful girls than to be gay".
He refused to apologise for his fondness for young women and denied doing anything improper, after the case of the girl known as Ruby filled Italian newspapers last week and opposition lawmakers called for him to resign.
"As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay," he told a meeting at a motorcycle industry show in Milan.
"You should be completely reassured about the government and about the fact that it's a government that still has a majority that intends to govern until the end of its term," he said.
Berlusconi, 74, has brushed off scandals over women and parties in the past but has been under unusual pressure since newspapers last week carried reports about the teenager who attended parties at his sumptuous villa at Arcore near Milan.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported details of a phone call it said Berlusconi made to a Milan police chief on Ruby's behalf when she was detained over a separate theft in May, raising questions of whether he improperly intervened.
Berlusconi says he helped Ruby, whose real name is reported by Italian newspapers to be Karima El Mahroug, but he denies exerting any improper pressure on police officers.
"This recent storm in the newspapers is a paper storm," Berlusconi said. "You will see in the end that nothing else happened apart from an act of solidarity by the prime minister, which I would have been ashamed not to do."
The teenager, who has since turned 18, has told newspapers she received 7,000 euros ($9,760) from Berlusconi after attending two parties. She has denied having sex with him.
Italian newspapers have begun speculating that the scandal could bring down Berlusconi's fragile centre-right coalition.
In a front-page editorial, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore wrote: "One point is certain. The Berlusconi government is paralysed. Virtually dead, you could say, due to the loss of credibility by its leader."
Berlusconi's government is also under fire over strikes and protests in the southern city of Naples which have left more than 2,000 tonnes of rubbish uncollected on the streets. Berlusconi said the municipal authorities were to blame. "You absolutely cannot, as some newspapers have done, make the government responsible and blame it for something which is the responsibility of local authorities," he said.
Berlusconi's comments about homosexuality drew immediate condemnation from gay rights groups and were also criticised by Hollywood actress Julianne Moore, who was attending the Rome Film Festival to present "The Kids Are All Right", a film about a lesbian couple raising their teenage children.
"I think it's unfortunate, archaic and idiotic," she said, when asked for her reaction to Berlusconi's comments.
"To hint or to say that there is something wrong with homosexuality ... it's unfortunate and it's embarrassing when people continue to perpetrate these untruths," she said.
