Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday made light of the growing polemics surrounding his personal life, including allegations that a prostitute spent the night at his Rome residence, telling an audience, 'I'm not a saint.' Berlusconi, 72, has been on the defensive since May, when his wife, Veronica Lario, said she was divorcing him, accusing him of cavorting with very young women and calling him 'unwell.' In recent weeks, several women have come forward saying they had been paid to attend parties at his official Rome residence and his villa in Sardinia. This week the heat rose a few more degrees, when the center-left daily La Repubblica and its affiliated newsweekly, L'Espresso, published what they said were audio recordings and transcripts of conversations between Berlusconi and a prostitute who says she spent the night at his official Rome residence. In one, Berlusconi can be heard telling the woman, Patrizia D'Addario, to wait for him 'in Putin's bed' while he takes a shower, presumably referring to a bed once used by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. At a ceremony on Wednesday to inaugurate construction on a highway near Milan, Berlusconi joked about the scandal. He said, according to Italian reports: 'I'm not a saint. You've understood that. Let's hope that the people at La Repubblica understand that, too,' Later, at a meeting of his center-right coalition, he said personal attacks 'don't touch' him, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. He added that 'government action' counted more and said his left-wing critics had lost 'votes and credibility.' In an interview in June with Chi magazine, which he owns and which is Italy's version of People magazine, Berlusconi said he had met D'Addario but did not know she was a prostitute. Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, called the audio recordings 'pure invention' and said that releasing them might have violated state secrecy. The tapes emerged in the course of a corruption investigation into a Bari businessman who reportedly brought D'Addario to Berlusconi's parties. Berlusconi is not under investigation, magistrates in Bari have said. Berlusconi, who still governs virtually unopposed, has said his left-wing opponents are attacking his personal life because they have no political ground on which to attack him. 