THE former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, known as “the Great Seducer”, is to lure women into his campaign for a spectacular political comeback by promising that at least a third of his ministers will be female.

The former cruise ship crooner aims to torpedo efforts to set up an interim government following the collapse of Romano Prodi’s left-wing coalition.

Berlusconi, a 71-year-old billionaire, is so confident that he will force an election for mid-April that he is already working on his manifesto and planning the composition of his third administration. Opinion polls give him a lead of between 9% and 15%.

“People go on about the need for a female minister for equal opportunities but what we need are many female ministers. My feeling is that half the ministers should be women,” Paolo Bonaiuti, Berlusconi’s right-hand man, told The Sunday Times this weekend.

Asked whether Berlusconi shared that opinion, he replied: “It depends on the number of ministers. There could be as few as 12 ministers in total. In that case, a third could be women.”

Might Berlusconi become the first Italian prime minister to appoint a cabinet half-filled with women? “I’d say never put a limit on providence,” Bonaiuti replied.

Although Italy’s political establishment is dominated by men, Berlusconi has a wide choice of female candidates to choose from, several of them newcomers he has propelled into politics.

Last summer he pushed into the limelight the flame-haired Michela Vittoria Brambilla, a former Miss Italy finalist known as “La Rossa” (the Red One), describing her as the “saviour” of the right. Brambilla heads a network of political clubs close to Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party but many of his allies see her as too ambitious and abrasive.

Asked last Friday whether she would like to serve as a minister, Brambilla sounded taken aback.

“Well look, in all sincerity I’m so busy doing what I can to contribute to what will surely be a huge victory that I haven’t thought about it yet. But yes, I’m at Berlusconi’s disposal,” she said.

Brambilla, a businesswoman from Lecco in northern Italy who owns 24 cats and 12 dogs, has founded Freedom TV and a weekly propaganda sheet. Last year she admitted: “I think Italy is ready for a woman prime minister and yes, I’d like the job.”

In a sign of the male resistance that Berlusconi faces, Sandro Biondi, Forza Italia’s spokesman, has said that he admired Brambilla’s drive but added that she knew little about politics, which required “humility, culture and respect for one’s adversaries”.

Among the other leaders of the female pack is Stefania Prestigiacomo, who served as equal opportunities minister in Berlusconi’s last government. She tried, but failed, to pass a law requiring electoral lists to include a minimum one-third of women.

Daniela Santanche, an MP for the right-wing National Alliance party, the second-biggest force in Berlusconi’s coalition, is also understood to be hungry for office.

Among the women Berlusconi has sponsored as MPs is the former showgirl Mara Carfagna, a member of his Forza Italia party. Berlusconi’s flirtation with Carfagna at a gala dinner a year ago earned him a stinging rebuke from his wife Veronica Lario, a former actress. In a letter to a newspaper Lario demanded a public apology – and got it.

How many of Berlusconi’s promises will actually be carried out remains to be seen. His previous government had only two female ministers. In Prodi’s outgoing government, six out of 25 posts were held by women, compared with the eight he had promised.

Bonaiuti said Berlusconi would run on a slim-line manifesto. “The last time Prodi ran for office his programme was 283 pages long. Berlusconi is going to do things in a practical, very British spirit. His manifesto will have only eight to 12 proposals in it,” Bonaiuti said. Priorities will include abolishing many new taxes introduced by Prodi and building affordable two-bedroom flats for couples.

Berlusconi remains an inspiration for a huge swathe of his countrymen, whose morale is at a low ebb as tons of household rubbish pile up uncollected in streets across the Bay of Naples.

A rich past

* Italy's richest man with a fortune of $11 billion (£5.6 billion)
* He has been put on trial at least six times on corruption charges, but never convicted
* President of AC Milan football club; this is said to have boosted his popularity
* A former crooner, he admits to plastic surgery and has been prime minister twice

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