Berlusconi in drama over soap actresses

Italy's richest man Silvio Berlusconi, no stranger to the law courts, is under investigation again – and this time there are soap starlets involved. The newspaper La Repubblica has posted online a seven-minute excerpt of a phone call, secretly taped by police, in which the former prime minister apparently tries to persuade a TV executive at the state-run broadcaster RAI to hire two actresses for roles in popular soaps. The intention, claims the newspaper, is to encourage two centre-left politicians linked to the women to join his opposition bloc in parliament.

The posting of the phone call from Berlusconi to Agostino Sacca, head of drama at RAI, follows news that prosecutors in Naples have warned Berlusconi they are investigating the allegation. As well as asking for the 'favour' for the actresses, Berlusconi is alleged to have offered Senator Nino Randazzo a foreign ministry job in Berlusconi's "next government" in return for staging "a little absence" in a crucial parliamentary vote, which would have triggered a government collapse for Berlusconi's arch-enemy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Berlusconi, who has recently formed a new party, People of Freedom, in a effort to get back into power (he was prime minister from 2001 to 2006), has faced an estimated 96 bribery and fraud trials in the 13 years since he entered politics. He has always been acquitted, or the statute of limitations has applied.

Typically he has refuted La Repubblica's allegations as "pure invention" and railed against Italy's "red army" of prosecutors. "I have absolutely nothing to worry about," he told a TV interviewer working for one of the three private TV channels he owns through his Mediaset business.

Berlusconi, 71, who is president of AC Milan, is thought to be more concerned with the pre-Christmas derby game against Inter Milan, and how to react to the Turkish club Fenerbahce's £4m offer for AC's Brazilian player Ronaldo – once one of the world's greatest footballers but now a busted flush, constantly sidelined by injury.