Italian authorities on Thursday defined as ''hooligans'' protestors in Naples who have clashed with police in recent days during the unrest over the trash emergency in the southern city.
Interior Minister Giuliano Amato met top security officials in Rome to assess the situation in Naples where firefighters had to put out at least 20 more fires started by angry locals amongst the rubbish on the streets.
One group of protestors in the Pozzuoli district assaulted fire engines when they arrived to quench the flames. Two fire engines were burned and seven fire-fighters injured by flying stones.
This and other ''criminal acts'' were the work of ''bands of hooligans without an overall strategy,'' Amato was told as authorities discussed the use of rapid-action police units to deal with them.
The Italian army has been drafted in to start clearing mounds of rubbish from streets but will play no role in policing the crisis, which has seen a string of street clashes outside a disputed dump.
Italy's new waste czar has promised a ''common sense'' solution to the Naples trash crisis.
Ex-national police chief Gianni De Gennaro said he would approach his task ''with the conviction that problems can be solved with common sense, balance, dialogue and direct and transparent communication''.
The new commissioner, who made his name fighting the Mafia, has been given a four-month mandate to clean up the Campania region, bring new systems on line and banish the shadow of the Camorra crime syndicate.
Meanwhile, 500 tons of Neapolitan trash was on its way to Sardinia on Thursday after the regional government agreed to dispose of it and thus alleviate problems in Naples.
