Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has reacted angrily to the publication in Spain of photographs showing topless women and a naked man at his villa.

He has threatened to sue Spain's El Pais newspaper, calling the photos an invasion of privacy.

The photos - banned in Italy on privacy grounds - were taken from outside Mr Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia during a party for a Czech delegation.

He also faces a probe for using state aircraft to fly guests to Sardinia.

Singers, statesmen, a Big Brother housemate and of course, a mysterious teenage model from Naples: to be invited to parties at Silvio Berlusconi's sumptuous Sardinian home is to belong to a diverse and tight-lipped club.

As the Italian Prime Minister continues to block the publication of photos allegedly showing semi-clad young women at his private villa, more accounts have emerged of his controversial parties on the Costa Smeralda.

Elisa Alloro, 33, a former showgirl turned television presenter, has offered the first glimpse behind the closed gates of Villa Certosa, describing the 72-year-old billionaire as an exuberant host who likes to give the young women on his guest list tips on how to wear their hair and lectures them on botany.

Her account coincides with reports by Italian media which name a former nude model, Sabine Began, as the "Queen Bee" among the succession of pretty girls at Mr Berlusconi's parties.

Former EU commissioner Emma Bonino and more than 150 of her supporters are entering their third day of hunger strike in protest at what they claim is discrimination by Italian television against parties opposed to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Bonino claims her Radical Party has not been given equal air time and that the state broadcaster RAI is failing to obey a ruling by the country's media watchdog. When the broadcaster failed to comply, Bonino, a minister under former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, and her supporters occupied a part of the RAI studios in Rome in protest. "In Italy nobody knows what they are voting for, what is the European parliament, who is standing or on what platform," she told the Financial Times, blaming Berlusconi for undermining the debate.

Silvio Berlusconi controls either directly, through his ownership of private broadcaster Mediasat, or indirectly through the state, more than 90 per cent of Italian TV. He has regularly been accused of abusing that power for both his political and business interests.

Yesterday Mirek Topolanek, who was the Czech Prime Minister last summer at the time that the photograph was taken, admitted that he was the man seen cavorting at the Villa Certosa, which is at the centre of the growing scandal.

"It is me in the photo," said Mr Topolanek, who resigned in March after he lost a confidence vote. He said that the photographs had been doctored and accused "European socialists" of orchestrating a smear campaign. "I did not know that the [European] elections were so important for the European socialists that they would do such manipulations," said Mr Topolanek.

The revelation has broadened what was an Italian scandal, about Mr Berlusconi's private life, into an international one. Many world leaders have been regular visitors to the villa; the Blairs were guests there in 2004.