Gozitans can also send "a strong message" that they want change in a week's time, Labour leader Joseph Muscat told supporters in Victoria this afternoon.

Speaking to a crescendo under the tent, Dr Muscat urged supporters to continue working so that Gozo will deliver a strong message of change.

The Labour Party will be holding a mass meeting in Gozo on Monday in Xaghra, a day after another mass meeting on the Granaries in Floriana.

In a 30-minute address unemployment topped Dr Muscat's agenda. Referring to recent figures published by the National Statistics Office, the Labour leader said unemployment continued increasing for 11 months in a row.

The NSO figures showed unemployment surpassing the 7,000 mark in January, an increase of more than 500 when compared to the same month last year.

Dr Muscat said the Prime Minister had tried to belittle the number of young unemployed during a leaders' debate on Xarabank yesterday.

"The Labour Force Survey puts the level of unemployment among young people at more than 4,000 and to us these are not irrelevant," Dr Muscat said to applause. He insisted that to address the problem the Prime Minister had to first realise it existed.

Making constant reference to the Xarabank debate, Dr Muscat said Labour's energy proposal was the only concrete plan by any political party to lower electricity tariffs.

He said rating agency Standard & Poor's, in a review of Enemalta this week, noted that the electricity cable to Sicily will be in place by 2015, a year after the PN's projected target.

"The Government now has a duty to explain this discrepancy... The truth is there is no plan," Dr Muscat said, hitting out at the PN's energy proposal to reduce tariffs at night when the interconnector cable becomes operational.

Dr Muscat said Labour's proposal will reduce tariffs across the board day and night.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com