Silvio Berlusconi, the embattled Italian Prime Minister, said yesterday that he was considering addressing parliament to explain his friendship with Noemi Letizia, the aspiring teenage model at the centre of his public divorce row.

Veronica Lario, his second wife, announced three weeks ago that she was seeking a divorce after Mr Berlusconi, 72, attended the 18th birthday party in Naples of Ms Letizia, who calls him “Papi”.

Ms Lario said that she could not stay with a man “who frequents minors”.

When he was asked if he might outline the nature of his relationship with Ms Letizia officially, he told a local television station in Rome: “Explain to parliament my relationship with Noemi Letizia? I’m thinking about it.”

In other interviews he said that claims would rebound on the people who have made allegations about his relationship with Ms Letizia, who says that he promised to help her into show business and politics.

“They will be ashamed, and will lose the respect of voters. In this case there is nothing improper, nothing that is not more than clean,” he told Radio Monte Carlo.

“The behaviour of several newspapers has really been disgraceful, vile — I would even say disgusting. When people will understand the real situation several people will be ashamed.”

Mr Berlusconi did not say what the real situation was or why he has not disclosed it already.

Ms Letizia denied to The Times that she is his illegitimate daughter. Her mother, Anna Palumbo, has refused to say when and how she met Mr Berlusconi.

The Prime Minister claims that he got to know the family through her husband, Benedetto Letizia, a council employee in Naples.

Mr Berlusconi may have to give two delicate explanations to parliament. Last week he said that he would rebut a verdict by Milan judges that he bribed David Mills, the British tax lawyer, to lie on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s.

He later said that he would only do so after the European elections in June.

Mr Berlusconi’s plans for reform in parliament and the judiciary, coupled with his hard line on immigration, appear calculated to boost his strong public support before the June poll.

Opinion polls give his ruling People of Liberty party 40 per cent, an increase of three percentage points from the election last year which brought him to power for the third time.

Members of his inner circle said that Mr Berlusconi was depressed and angry about the publicity surrounding Ms Letizia and him, despite his seemingly enduring appeal with the electorate, and that he was concerned about its impact on Catholic voters.

Mr Berlusconi said that he would continue with plans for a petition — which would require 500,000 signatures — to force parliament to adopt a Bill increasing his powers as Prime Minister and reducing the number of deputies from 630 to 300.

The opposition leader, Dario Franceschini, said at a European election rally in Reggio Emilia that Mr Berlusconi “must tell the truth”.

Luigia Zanda, the deputy head of the opposition Democratic Party faction in the Senate, said that the friendship with Ms Letizia was not a private matter and that the powers the Prime Minister possessed required absolute transparency.

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