Rioting residents threw rocks at police and destroyed garbage trucks during violent skirmishes near Naples that injured 20 officers as the region's waste disposal crisis escalated.

The skirmishes prompted the government to call an emergency meeting for tomorrow.

Demonstrators in the small town of Boscoreale "assaulted 20 policemen and damaged 16 vehicles including eight police cars" during running battles with officers in riot gear wielding truncheons, a Naples police spokesperson said.

There was no word from officials on the numbers of protesters injured.

Five garbage trucks and a police car were set alight as officers attempted to gain control of the town by firing tear gas, setting up road blocks and calling for reinforcements.

The revolt followed the government's decision to go ahead with plans to open a vast garbage tip in the region.

The Cava Vitiello tip is planned to be the biggest garbage dump in Europe with a three-million-tonne capacity.

Todayday's violence followed a night of clashes between residents and police in the nearby town of Terzigno as hundreds of masked demonstrators took to the streets with women and children to protest the opening of the new dump.

The inhabitants of Terzigno and several other municipalities in the area are planning to take their case to Rome where they are to hold a rally tomorrow.

Domenico Auricchio, mayor of Terzigno, travelled to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's residence in Rome and said he hoped to persuade the Italian leader to do something about the crisis.

"Twenty days ago Berlusconi told me he would have found a solution to the second tip," he said.

"He promised he would come to Terzigno but he still hasn't," he said.

The leader of Italy's Green party, Angelo Bonelli, who had gone to Terzigno to meet residents, said the crisis was caused by "Berlusconi's lies" and called for the prime minister to resign.

"Italians have been deceived by the Berlusconi government that not only lied about resolving the garbage crisis but still doesn't have a plan to resolve the problem," he said.

Tensions have been rising in the Naples region on this flashpoint issue, which helped Berlusconi to his election victory in 2008 after he promised to stamp out the waste disposal problem in the area.

The European Court of Justice earlier this year criticised Italy, saying it had no adequate system for waste disposal in the Naples region and warning that the problem was a risk to human health and the environment.