Berlusconi Admits Paying Ruby $87K -- for Beauty Parlor Equipment

For the first time, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has admitted to paying a teenage erotic dancer $87,000, but insists the whopping payment wasn't for sex but to save her from a life of prostitution.

Mired in a sex scandal that threatens to end his political career, Berlusconi acknowledged that he gave Moroccan-born Karima El Mahroug, aka "Ruby the Heart Stealer," a huge sum of money. But he said it was to pay for laser hair removal equipment for a beauty parlor the 17-year-old dreamed of opening with a friend.

Berlusconi, 74, told reporters Monday that he suspected that Mahroug might turn to prostitution to make money otherwise. So he offered her 45,000 euros to start her business -- but she demanded 60,000 euros instead. That's the equivalent of about $87,000.

"I gave this money so she could avoid any need ... to prostitute herself and to bring her instead in the opposite direction," he said.

Coincidentally, Berlusconi was appearing at the Milan court for another fraud case against him, involving his company Mediaset. He spoke to reporters from several newspapers.

Berlusconi has denied ever having sex with Mahroug. His trial on charges of paying an underage prostitute for sex and abusing the power of his political office is due to reconvene May 31. He faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

On Monday, the prime minister called the charges against him "laughable, idiotic and unfounded."

He also sought to explain why he intervened to spring Mahroug from jail on theft allegations last year. He said he did so to "avoid a diplomatic incident," because he thought Mahroug was the granddaughter of then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Berlusconi's critics call that explanation far-fetched -- that a wealthy Arab dictator's heir might have to turn to prostitution to earn the down payment for her business.

"He's trying to reconcile the irreconcilable," Anna Finocchiaro, a member of parliament from the opposition Democratic Party, told The Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, another member of Berlusconi's bevy of buxom female "friends" has rushed to his defense, saying the 74-year-old prime minister is "too attractive to have to pay for sex."

Russian model Raisa Skorkina, who also called Berlusconi her "guardian angel," told the Moscow newspaper Pravda that he "is very handsome and regardless of the fact that he is well advanced in his years, he is very sexy."

"He does not need to pay women," the 29-year-old blonde told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "He is a rich, exciting man full of power and charisma."

Italian investigators have long been familiar with Skorkina's name. During their probe of Berlusconi's affairs, they recorded some of his phone calls with the Russian model last year, in which she can be heard telling the prime minister she's run out of "petrol" -- an alleged code word for money. On the recording, he promises her that his accountant will help. It's unclear what Berlusconi may have been paying Skorkina for.

Skorkina said she first met Berlusconi on the island of Sardinia in 2004. They exchanged phone numbers, and he called her the next day.

"When I saw Berlusconi I got butterflies in my stomach," she recalled. "What a handsome man! With a white bandanna round his head! I simply died when I saw him."

Skorkina told the newspaper she has recently divorced her husband and hinted that Berlusconi is the reason her marriage failed.

"I am not dating anyone now because of Silvio," she said. "He knows this, and he will like reading it."