Second teenage call girl linked to Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi came under increasing pressure to resign yesterday, after prosecutors said a second under-age girl allegedly took part in parties at a villa owned by the beleaguered prime minister, receiving jewels and other gifts in exchange.

A parliamentary committee is examining 200 more pages of documents drawn up by prosecutors investigating Mr Berlusconi on suspicion he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl.

Italian media said the documents refer to a Brazilian named as Iris Berardi, a known prostitute, said to have attended the parties before she turned 18.

Revelations that another minor might have been at some of Mr Berlusconi's parties widens the probe and adds to the 74-year-old leader's woes. The centre-left opposition called for him to go, and demanded his conservative allies press him to quit for the good of the country.

Mr Berlusconi has denied ever paying for sex and called the allegations "outrageous".

Milan prosecutors sent the additional documentation to the parliamentary committee to back up a request to search some of Mr Berlusconi's properties.The prosecutors had already provided almost 400 pages of documents and alleged evidence against Mr Berlusconi last week.

Mr Berlusconi is a member of the lower house of parliament, whose members enjoy immunity from arrest or searches in criminal probes, unless the committee decides otherwise.

The new documents reportedly include wiretaps of conversations between the young women who attended his parties, alleged evidence of payments to them and reports from police searches conducted earlier this month at some of the women's homes.

The most potentially dangerous revelations involve the Brazilian woman. The documents list necklaces, bracelets, pendants and other jewels she allegedly received "in exchange for her repeated participation at parties at Berlusconi's villas", according to excerpts. The materials were seized during a search at her home on 14 January.

The documents also state the woman was at a Berlusconi villa on 22 November, 2009, according to reports and was at his villa near Milan on 13 December, 2009.

The documents reportedly cite several other dates in which the Brazilian was allegedly at Mr Berlusconi's villas. But those two are significant because she was reportedly born on 29 December, 1991, and was then a minor.

Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy, unless the prostitute is under 18.

The documents also include purported conversations between a Berlusconi associate also under investigation, Nicole Minetti, and a friend, in which Ms Minetti insults Mr Berlusconi and accuses him of having dragged her into "a mess".

Mr Berlusconi has denied the allegations and accused prosecutors of a witch-hunt.Amid reports his parties involve topless girls and sexually-enticing dancing, he has insisted they are elegant and proper affairs and nothing to be ashamed of.

The now 18-year-old Moroccan girl known as Ruby has denied having sex with him when she was 17 but admitted that he had given her €7,000 (6,000) to help her out.