My wife owes me apology, says Silvio Berlusconi

The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has come out fighting after his wife announced on Sunday that she wants a divorce. In interviews with the Corriere Della Sera and La Stampa, Berlusconi said that he knew who was "egging on his wife" Veronica Lario, and suggested that he should be the one suing her for divorce, not the other way round.

"I am indignant," said the 72-year-old tycoon turned politician. "Veronica has fallen into a trap and I know who has been advising her or better still egging her on. Don't worry, everything will come out, the truth will emerge."

He then said that Lario, a 52-year-old former actress whom he first met in 1980, owed him an apology. "This is the third time she has done something like this during an election campaign and this time it is too much."

Referring to Lario's claim that there was something sleazy about him attending the 18th birthday party of a blonde model, Noemi Letizia, who calls him 'daddy', he said: "Those insinuations about me consorting with minors are unreadable." He said Noemi was the daughter of a business associate and that he would have been "mad" to attend her party "if there had been anything sordid behind it".

If Lario goes ahead with the divorce petition, she is expected to fight for a share of Berlusconi's fortune for herself and their three children. The latest Forbes Rich List, published in March, put him at Number 70 in the world, with an estimated fortune of $6.5bn. ·