ROME: Italian police arrested a businessman on Thursday on charges of extorting money from premier Silvio Berlusconi in return for cooperating in a probe over recruiting prostitutes to attend wild parties at Berlusconi's home. Giampaolo Tarantini and his wife Angela Devenuto were picked up in Rome after payments from Berlusconi totalling as much as half a million euros were uncovered by investigators, police in Naples said. Berlusconi is not under investigation.

Tarantini has admitted he paid a high-end prostitute, Patrizia D'Addario , and other women to attend parties at Berlusconi's residences, but insists the premier didn't know. He is currently under investigation in Bari for allegedly aiding and abetting prostitution.

Naples Prosecutor Francesco Greco said Tarantini had forced Berlusconi to pay his family legal and housing costs in exchange for Tarantino's cooperation in the Bari prostitution investigation.

Specifically, Greco alleges that Berlusconi's payment was designed to ensure that Tarantino entered a plea bargain in the Bari case rather than letting it go to trial.

Such a move would limit the publication of possibly embarassing telephone intercept.