Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi faced new allegations in the press today as his trial on corruption charges began.
The right-wing media mogul allegedly paid off a paparazzo to stop the publication of compromising photographs of his daughter, Italian papers report today.
Mr Berlusconi allegedly paid €20,000 for photos showing his daughter Barbara drunk and in male company outside a Milan disco, Corriere della Serareported.
Other people whose names have come up in the blackmail investigation include actors, politicians and soccer players.
The newspaper published purported transcripts of the deposition given by Barbara Berlusconi to a prosecutor in the southern town of Potenza who is investigating the alleged blackmail.
In the transcripts published by the newspaper, Ms Berlusconi says she negotiated with her blackmailers and her father gave her the money - though they never discussed what it was for.
The paparazzo at the centre of the inquiry, Fabrizio Corona, was arrested along with two others on yesterday.
The trial of Mr Berlusconi, who is charged with corruption along with the estranged husband of British culture minister Tessa Jowell, is due to start today.
The trial is one of a number involving Mr Berlusconi over his business dealings in Milan. It is alleged that in 1997 he ordered payments of at least €440,000 to be made to his co-defendant David Mills in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony in two trials in the 1990s.
Both deny the allegations and neither man was expected to appear in court today.
Mr Mills and Ms Jowell formally separated last year. If convicted, he and Mr Berlusconi could be sentenced to between three and eight years in prison.
AP