Berlusconi agrees to pay €36 million to former wife

PanARMENIAN.Net - Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to pay 36m euros (£30m; $48m) a year to his ex-wife Veronica Lario, reports say, accoridng to BBC News.

Berlusconi will keep the $100m villa where the couple lived with their three children, as part of a divorce deal reportedly filed on Christmas Day.

Ms Lario left Berlusconi in 2009 after he was seen at the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model.

US magazine Forbes estimated his wealth at nearly $6bn in March. The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that Ms Lario had initially asked for $56m a year. Her 76-year-old ex-husband reportedly offered her about $5m.

The couple met in a dressing room in 1980 after Berlusconi saw Ms Lario, 56, perform in a Milan theatre. They were married in 1990.

He has two other children from his first marriage and is currently engaged to 28-year-old Francesca Pascale.

Berlusconi was Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister until he resigned in November 2011. He says he will to run for office again in 2013.

His third term in office saw slow growth and a national debt of $2.6 trillion and his government was slow to implement austerity measures in response. He also became embroiled in a series of financial and sex scandals.