Silvio Berlusconi calls Mubarak a wise man

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as the wisest leader in the Middle East and said he should remain in place during the country's transition to democracy.

Berlusconi has said a 17-year-old nightclub dancer at the center of sex scandal surrounding the prime minister is related to Mubarak.

"I hope there can be continuity in government," Berlusconi told reporters on arriving at a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday. "I hope that in Egypt there can be a transition toward a more democratic system without a break from President Mubarak, who in the West, above all in the United States, is considered the wisest of men and a precise reference point."

Berlusconi sought to play down the scale of the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, saying there were “really few” demonstrators considering Egypt’s population of 80 million.

Milan prosecutors claim that are investigating whether nightclub dancer, Karima el-Mahroug, known as "Ruby," who turned out to be the child of Moroccan parents living in Sicily, was a prostitute at the prime minister's private villa.

The police began wiretapping Mahroug, now 18, after she was arrested for allegedly stealing 3,000 euros from a friend and Berlusconi himself called the police station urging her release, vouching for her character and telling officers that she was a granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Berlusconi insisted Friday that his center-right coalition still had a parliamentary majority allowing him to govern.