Investigations focusing on businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini, who allegedly paid escorts to attend parties at Premier Silvio Berlusconi's homes, will wrap up before the end of July, the chief prosecutor in the southern city of Bari said on Tuesday.
Emilio Marzano told reporters that his office was keen to close the case before the end of July but was unlikely to do so ahead of or during the July 8-10 Group of Eight summit which Italy, in its role as rotating G8 president, will host in L'Aquila.
Marzano dismissed media reports that investigators were also probing the use of drugs at parties attended by Tarantini.
Tarantini, 34, who owns a hospital supplies firm, has denied that the premier knew that the girls he took or sent to parties at Berlusconi's Rome home or at his villa in Sardinia were in fact being paid.
Tarantini is being probed for abetting prostitution because prosecutors believe he paid the women to ''ingratiate himself'' with powerful people, including the deputy president of the Puglia region of the opposition Democratic Party, to help his business activities.
Barbara Montereale, a model who has already been questioned, has told the press that one of the paid escort - Patrizia D'Addario - told her she had spent the night in Berlusconi's home on November 4.
Montereale has given the press photographs she alleges to have taken in Berlusconi's bathroom and has said that a large number of women attended these parties.
The escort investigations are part of a wider health scam probe into Tarantini's dealings with Bari hospitals.
The premier has slammed the press's coverage of the escorts probe as ''just rubbish, just trash'' and friends in his People of Freedom (PdL) party and in the Northern League claim that the ''gossip'' will not affect the government.
They have also accused the opposition and the left-leaning press of fomenting scandals in a bid to damage Berlusconi's image ahead of the G8 summit.
Last week, Berlusconi said he ''unfortunately invited the wrong guest'' (Tarantini) who had in turn ''invited the wrong guest's guest'' at his parties.
