By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - A few months after Silvio Berlusconi's marital spat made headlines, the former prime minister was in the news for non-political reasons again on Wednesday when a magazine ran photos of him with young women.

Paparazzi-style pictures showing Italy's richest man holding hands with a group of women and them sitting on his lap during Easter weekend at his Sardinian villa were splashed on the cover of celebrity magazine Oggi and reprinted by some newspapers.

Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said the photos were taken illegally by trespassers during a function with plenty of men around, and that just out of frame were other guests and service staff. He threatened to sue.

Berlusconi's supporters said the photos were nothing shocking -- and hardly justified the magazine's headline: "Berlusconi's Harem". Indeed, Berlusconi, 70, often looked more like an uncle than a sultan.

"This is just the story of a little political vendetta," wrote Il Giornale newspaper, owned by Berlusconi's family.

The latest photos had political overtones. Oggi last month refused to publish photos showing Prime Minister Romano Prodi's spokesman, Silvio Sircana, talking to a transsexual prostitute.

Those photos were later run in some newspapers. Sircana called it "a moment of stupid curiosity".

Berlusconi's wife Veronica, 20 years his junior, did not comment on the latest photos.

In January, she wrote an open letter to a newspaper demanding a public apology from Berlusconi for making sexist quips to younger women such as "If I wasn't already married, I would marry you right away" and "with you I'd go anywhere".

Berlusconi responded with a public apology saying: "I beg you, forgive me".