Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti has denied any illegal behaviour in a scandal involving payments for his luxury apartment in Rome, as Italy comes under fire on financial markets.
In interviews with Italian newspapers, Tremonti rejected opposition calls for his resignation but admitted he had made mistakes, saying: 'I have done a stupid thing and I take responsibility for it'.
He is alleged to have paid in cash for the €8,500 a month flat to a senior aide and lawmaker for the ruling People of Freedom party whose arrest has been requested by prosecutors as part of a wide-ranging sleaze scandal.
'There was no irregularity,' Tremonti said in one of the interviews, adding that his biggest regret was 'not having left the apartment earlier'.
Tremonti quit his lodgings earlier this month after the scandal first broke but he said: 'I can demonstrate irrefutably that my behaviour was correct.'
The assumption made by many commentators on the scandal is that the finance minister was paying in cash so that the money was not officially registered and the owner did not have to pay taxes - a widespread practice in Italy.
But Tremonti said the cash payments did not contravene Italian law.
