Silvio Berlusconi faces trial on child sex charge

Mr Berlusconi will go to trial on 6 April facing charges that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl and then tried to cover it up. He has previously faced business-related charges, but this is the first time the 74-year-old billionaire has been tried for his personal conduct.

The prime minister has called the accusations "groundless" and dismissed the case as a "farce," accusing prosecutors of seeking to remove him from power.

Judge Cristina Di Censo handed down the indictment yesterday with a statement that showed she believes there is sufficient evidence to subject Mr Berlusconi to an immediate trial, as prosecutors had requested. The speeded-up procedure, which is ordered in cases of overwhelming evidence in Italy, skips a preliminary hearing.

The trial will be heard by a panel of three female judges.

The case is based on 782 pages of transcriptions of wire taps, intercepted text messages and bank details which Mr Berlusconi - who denies any wrongdoing - insists is a gross invasion of his privacy.

There was no immediate comment from Mr Berlusconi. He did not attend a news conference in Sicily about immigration and did not talk to reporters on arriving back home in Rome.

"We didn't expect anything different," one of Mr Berlusconi's lawyers, Piero Longo, said.

The three-time premier is politically vulnerable following a split with a former ally and the indictment will increase the pressure on him to resign - a possibility he has repeatedly rejected.

The child prostitution charge carries a possible prison sentence of six months to three years. The abuse of influence charge carries a possible sentence of four to 12 years. Mr Berlusconi could be barred permanently from public office if convicted.

The trial brings to four the number of judicial cases Mr Berlusconi is currently battling. They will all be starting or resuming in coming weeks, after Italy's highest court recently watered down an immunity bill his government had sponsored to suspend the trials.

The latest trial could take months - even years - given the number of cases against Mr Berlusconi at the moment.

Prosecutors allege Mr Berlusconi paid for sex with a Moroccan girl nicknamed Ruby - real name Karima El Mahroug - then used his influence to get her out of police custody when she was detained for the unrelated suspected theft of €3,000.They allege he called police on 27 May as he feared her relationship to him would be revealed.

Mr Berlusconi has not denied making the phone call, but said he did so because he wanted to avert a diplomatic incident. He said he believed Ms El Mahroug to be the niece of Hosni Mubarak, the recently-deposed Egyptian president.

Both Mr Berlusconi and Ms El Mahroug, who has since turned 18, have denied having sex, although she has said he gave her ?€7,000 on their first meeting.

Paying for sex with a prostitute is only a crime in Italy if the prostitute is under 18.

Mr Berlusconi does not have to attend the court hearings and is under no obligation to resign. In Italy, a defendant is not considered guilty until all levels of appeals have been exhausted.

The three judges - selected at random - who will hear the case are Carmen D'Elia, 50, who has been a judge for 20 years and in the past tried three people accused of helping Mr Berlusconi in a dubious business deal; Orsola De Cristofaro, who has been involved in several bribery and corruption trials, and most recently convicted a surgeon at Milan hospital for carrying out unnecessary operations, and Giulia Turri, who was involved in a 2007 case where paparazzo Fabrizio Corona encouraged women to have compromising photographs taken with celebrities who were then blackmailed.