Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi professed his love for 'beautiful women' on Wednesday as he pointed to his high popularity rating to brush aside a new sex scandal. Berlusconi said he was the victim of 'ferocious attacks' after two newspapers published excerpts from interrogations of a businessman charged with corruption who said he brought prostitutes to parties hosted by the premier. During a political meeting with a youth group from his conservative party Wednesday evening, the 72-year-old billionaire said his approval rating stood at 68.4 percent. 'Silvio Berlusconi enjoys a record approval rating in a period of (economic) crisis, despite the ferocious attacks against him,' the flamboyant media mogul said, referring to himself in the third person. 'I think Italians recognise themselves in me. I am one of them. I was poor, I am interested in the things that interest them, I love football, I smile, I love others and above else beautiful women,' he said to loud applause. The Corriere della Sera and La Stampa said Wednesday that businessman Giancarlo Tarantini claimed to have brought around 30 women ready to give sexual favours, 'if the need arose,' at 18 parties in Berlusconi's homes in Rome and Sardinia between September 2008 and January 2009. Some of them received 1,000 euros 'for sexual favours' while others were 'only reimbursed for their expenses,' Tarantini said, according to the interrogation excerpts. One of the guests included stars from Italian reality television shows as well as Patrizia D'Addario, an escort girl who has claimed to have spent a night in Berlusoni's home in Rome. 'I introduced them as my friends and did not mention the fact that sometimes I paid them,' Tarantini was quoted as saying. 'I wanted to meet premier Berlusconi and to that end I spent a lot to get into contact with him, knowing his taste for women,' he said. 'I merely accompanied to his house young women who I introduced as my friends while keeping quiet about the fact that I sometimes paid them,' Tarantini was quoted as saying by Corriere. Berlusconi has been plagued by scandals since his wife announced in May that she would divorce him after he attended a young model's 18th birthday. The prime minister and the girl have vehemently denied that they had a sexual relationship. Berlusconi has also insisted that he has never paid for sex. 