Clampdown on illegal immigrants

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Cabinet approved tough new measures against illegal immigrants and crime yesterday despite concerns in the EU that they could fuel racism. "Citizens have a fundamental right not to be afraid. The right not to be afraid is a right that a state worthy of the name must guarantee," said 71-year-old Berlusconi, who won a third term promising to fight crime widely blamed on immigrants.

Honouring a campaign promise to hold his first full Cabinet meeting in Naples to highlight the trash crisis there, Italy's new conservative premier vowed to act "exactly as if it were an emergency caused by a earthquake or volcano eruption".

Mr Berlusconi approved a decree opening new landfills which will now be considered military zones, giving the army powers to stop local residents from blocking roads and railway lines in protest against unwanted rubbish tips in their neighbourhoods.

Mr Berlusconi also scrapped taxes on homes, overtime and productivity-related pay, and sought banks' help to lower mortgage payments, in a bid to help the euro zone's third largest economy avoid a looming recession.

Naples has been the focus of a violent backlash against illegal Roma camps depicted by right-wingers in Mr Berlusconi's new government as dens of criminality. Police evacuated one camp after people set fire to shacks over news reports of an apparent attempted kidnapping of a baby by a Roma girl.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, from the anti-immigrant Northern League party allied to Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom, told reporters after the Cabinet meeting the new security laws would be rushed through Parliament by the end of July. They include making illegal immigration a jailable offence, which has outraged European human rights groups and politicians.

Property rented to illegal immigrants will be confiscated.

The package makes it easier to expel illegal immigrants who fall foul of the law, check the income of immigrants from the EU and crack down on abuse of the asylum system to enter Italy.

The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, criticised the package but Mr Maroni said all the new measures respected EU norms.

"The accusations against us that have been made over the past few days are groundless," he said.