ROME - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he was confident he retained the backing of the Italian people as he angrily denied any romantic links to an aspiring teenage model, in an interview aired Monday.

Berlusconi set tongues wagging after attending the 18th birthday of Noemi Letizia last month but the prime minister told CNN: "There is nothing, nothing at all" going on between himself and the teenager.

"It is disgraceful the conduct of people who invade privacy and use private matters for political attacks," said the 72-year-old.

"I will still have the Italians on my side and once again this accusation will act as a boomerang against the people who have started it."

Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario has let it be known that she wants a divorce after it was reported that her husband presented Letizia with a gold and diamond necklace gift at the coming-of-age party.

But Berlusconi said that his wife of nearly 19 years should not believe everything she reads in the newspapers.

"Even my wife fell into this error and believed what the press said", added the prime minister who is himself a billionaire media tycoon.

The scandal has cast a shadow over campaigning by Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party ahead of elections to the European Parliament early next month.

The PDL is nevertheless ahead in voter surveys and appears set to improve its 37.4 percent share of the vote in last year’s general elections that returned Berlusconi to power for a third time since 1994.

The prime minister described a "great sense of sacrifice" in leading the nation, a job he said he does not like.

"I'm here because unfortunately right now Berlusconi is considered the only leader capable of holding the centre-right together," he said in the interview conducted Saturday, a transcript of which was released by his office.

"On the opposite side, on the left, there isn't a credible or respectable leader, and so I think this is a cross I must bear and bear it I will with sacrifice for a while," he said.

Berlusconi also blamed the media for portraying him as gaffe-prone.

"I have never made any gaffes, not even one. Every gaffe is invented by the newspapers," he said.