Italy looks to army to end Naples trash crisis

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attends a cabinet meeting in Naples May 21, 2008. (REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/Agnfoto)

NAPLES (Reuters) - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday he would rely on the Italian army to face down protests over his plans to end a trash crisis in the southern city of Naples.

The conservative billionaire has made cleaning up Naples a priority for his three-week-old government, after the city's waste-high piles of rotting rubbish scared off tourists and damaged residents' health.

His plans to open a new landfill site have sparked riots by angry local residents, but Berlusconi said he would not be intimidated by the protests and said those who tried to interfere with the dumping would be prosecuted.

He also defended his proposals, announced on May 21, to use the army to protect landfill sites.

"We will use national force -- the army," said Berlusconi, holding his second cabinet meeting in Naples in just over a week to signal his commitment to the issue.

"Whoever hopes that we'll back off should know that we're convinced that the state must finally do what is necessary."

Trash has been piling up in the streets of Naples since the end of last year, when all dumps were declared full. The problem is complicated further by the involvement of the local mafia, or "Camorra," in illegal waste disposal for Italian industry.

Berlusconi said he aimed to definitively fix the chronic problem within the first three years of his five year term.

He defended his package of legislation to address the crisis, which his cabinet approved just over a week ago. A government official said on Friday soldiers might also soon take over trash sorting centers.

"What's at stake are the basic rules to avoid slipping from democracy to anarchy," Berlusconi said.

A judge in Naples earlier this week ordered 25 people, including employees at units of construction company Imperil, to be put under house arrest for alleged irregularities in waste management activities in southern Italy.

One of those investigated, but not put under arrest, was the prefect or police chief of Naples, Alessandro Pans, who has had a key role in overseeing the government's response to the rubbish crisis. Pans denies any wrongdoing.

Berlusconi said he wanted to create a special prosecutor's office to supervise the trash investigations.

Antonio Di Petrol, a former anti-graft magistrate who is a now a leading centre-left politician, criticized the move and warned it could undermine work by local prosecutors.

"No the to 'super prosecutor' on trash ... It doesn't make sense. The magistrates are doing their jobs," he said.

(Writing by Phil Stewart)