Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday he wouldn't patch things up with his wife after she slammed plans to field pretty young women in the European elections and accused him of ''consorting with minors''.
Berlusconi, 72, told Corriere della Sera he might file a counter-suit if his wife Veronica Lario, 52, went ahead with plans to divorce him.
Asked if his 19-year marriage to Lario could survive, he replied: ''I don't think so, and I don't know if I want it this time. Veronica will have to publicly apologise to me, and I don't know if that will be enough''.
''It's the third time she's played a trick like this during an election campaign. It's really too much'.
''Veronica fell into a trap,'' he added, accusing the leftwing media of plotting against him.
''I know who put her up to this,'' he said.
In a separate interview with La Stampa, the premier said there might ''even be grounds for defamation'' after she told another newspaper, La Repubblica, that she ''(could) not stay with a man who consorted with minors''.
''Those insinuations about me consorting with minors are unreadable,'' Berlusconi told La Stampa, saying he would have been ''mad'' to attend the birthday party of the 18-year-old daughter of a business associate ''if there had been anything sordid behind it''.
He defended his party's selection of allegedly 'showgirl' EP candidates after Lario called it ''shamelessly trashy'' and said all six young women were qualified for the job, including the three that were pulled at the last minute.
Only one of the remaining three had worked on TV, as an announcer and actress, he told both papers.
Politicians from both sides of the political fence agreed with Berlusconi Monday that the spat, which has claimed headlines in Italy and abroad, should be treated as a private affair.
But Democratic Party leader Dario Franceschini said Berlusconi should stop his ''pathetic'' claims about a leftwing plot.
Media magnate Berlusconi, Italy's second-richest man, divorced his first wife to marry former actress Lario in 1990 but the two have been together for 29 years.
The Berlusconis had another highly publicised spat two years ago when Lario demanded, and obtained, a public apology after he reportedly flirted with young women, one of whom is now his equal opportunities minister.
In the latest incident, Lario accused him of insulting womens' dignity and making ''victims'' of his family.
The premier has three children by Lario, aged 20, 22 and 24.
His two children by his first wife play top roles in his business empire.
