A Russian friend of Silvio Berlusconi has defended the Italian Prime Minister - who is in the middle of a sex scandal over alleged paid sex with an underage dancer - saying that he is so attractive that he doesn't need to pay for sex.

Raisa Skorkina, a former model, said she first met Berlusconi on Sardinia in 2004 when they swapped numbers, and that he phoned her the next day.