Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has dismissed calls to resign over reports he helped a 17-year-old girl who attended parties at his house, saying it was "better to like beautiful girls than to be gay".

He refused to apologise for his fondness for young women and denied doing anything improper, after the case of the girl known as Ruby filled Italian newspapers last week.

"As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay," he said.

Mr Berlusconi, 74, has brushed off scandals over women, prostitutes and parties in the past but has been under unusual pressure since newspapers last week carried reports about the teenager who attended parties at his villa at Arcore near Milan.

The prime minister reportedly made a phone call to a Milan police chief on Ruby's behalf when she was detained over a theft in May, raising questions of whether he improperly intervened.

He says he helped Ruby, a Moroccan runaway whose real name is reported by newspapers to be Karima El Mahroug, but he denies exerting any improper pressure on police officers.

"This recent storm in the newspapers is a paper storm," he said.

"You will see in the end that nothing else happened apart from an act of solidarity by the prime minister, which I would have been ashamed not to do."

In an interview with the weekly Oggi, the teenager, who has since turned 18, said she received 7,000 euros ($9,760) from Mr Berlusconi after a party in February, which she attended with a group of 10 other young women.

She has denied having sex with him and said she had told him she was 24 when they met.

Mr Berlusconi's comments about homosexuality drew immediate condemnation from gay rights groups.

They were also criticised by Hollywood actress Julianne Moore, who was attending the Rome Film Festival to present The Kids Are All Right, a film about a lesbian couple raising their teenage children.

"I think it's unfortunate, archaic and idiotic," she said, when asked for her reaction to Mr Berlusconi's comments.

- Reuters