Three men were arrested early today for assaulting police officers near Naples during a protest against landfills in the area, police said, but there were no major violent clashes.

Thousands of local residents protested on Sunday in Terzigno, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Naples, to demand that authorities close the existing Cava Sari landfill and scrap plans for a second one, Cava Vitiello.

The second dump is planned to be Europe's biggest, with a capacity of three million tonnes, and both are inside the territory of the Vesuvius National Park.

The European Union and local authorities have also demanded that the Cava Vitiello plan be scrapped.

A meeting is planned for Tuesday between mayors of the area and the head of the civil protection agency, Guido Bertolaso, who is dealing with the crisis.

Monday's overnight arrests came after two police cars in the area were surrounded by around 40 youths who attacked the officers.

Dozens of people were injured last week during clashes between protesters and police, as the waste disposal crisis in the Naples region escalated.

Protesters had staged sit-ins and erected barricades in the streets to try and block garbage trucks from unloading at the Cava Sari dump.

The crisis is politically sensitive as a previous, more serious waste crisis in Naples contributed to the electoral defeat of Italy's centre-left government in 2008 and the coming to power of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.