London, July 2 : The sex scandal swirling around Silvio Berlusconi took a fresh turn when a reality TV show contestant claimed that he had only posed as the boyfriend of aspiring model Noemi Letizia, after the Italian premier attended her 18th birthday party in April.

Domenico Cozzolino, 21, said that his ''fake'' relationship with Letizia had been organised, but he refused to say by whom.

It was Berlusconi''s presence at the party in Naples, at which he gave Letizia a 5,200 pounds gold-and-diamond pendant that led his wife, Veronica Lario, to demand a divorce.

However, it was later disclosed that Letizia attended dinners given by Berlusconi in Rome and Milan when she was 17, and had even been to his Sardinian villa for a New Year party.

In an interview with woman''s magazine Diva e Donna, Cozzolino said that Letizia had asked him to pose as her boyfriend "three or four days" after her 18th birthday party.

Letizia''s previous boyfriend Gino Flaminio said that they had broke up when she came back from Sardinia

"I believe someone put her up to it. The truth is it was all organised," the Telegraph quoted Cozzolino as saying.

However, a spokesman for the Prime Minister declined to comment when asked if the "someone" was Berlusconi.

Cozzolino said that Letizia had not contacted him since June 7, the final day of the European and local elections.

"They wanted to send me away because I know too much," Cozzolino told the magazine.

He said that even now he had "not told the whole truth, just part of it".

Italian reports have claimed that photographs showing Cozzolino and Letizia kissing on the seafront in Naples that were published in Chi magazine - owned by Berlusconi- had been staged, as had photographs of the couple in Riccione.

Diva e Donna had published an interview with Cristina Tatenko, a 25-year-old Russian model who said that she was Cozzolino''s girlfriend.

Tatenko had said that Cozzolino assured her that he had only a work relationship with Letizia. (ANI)