New Infrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro on Wednesday sought to ease concern that public works on roads and railways would have to be halted due to a cash crunch.
The former anti-graft prosecutor said in a television interview that it would be "irresponsible" not to find the money to continue the works. The priorities he listed included the completion of work on the southern Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway and another motorway running from Catania to Siracusa in Sicily.
Di Pietro said that 30 infrastructure projects in all were awaiting completion while bidding among contractors was slated to begin for 42 others. "One of the few good things the (previous) centre-right government did was to create a new infrastructure plan for Italy. We mustn't toss it out. Instead, it should be revised according to the resources available," he said.
The new centre-left government of Premier Romano Prodi has been sounding the alarm over the state of Italy's public accounts, describing the situation as "disastrous". According to press reports, the Prodi government is considering a 7-billion-euro mini-budget to curb the deficit, seen as hitting some 5% of GDP this year unless corrective measures are taken.
Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa Schioppa warned on Sunday that motorway and rail works could be closed down, stressing that "the situation is much worse than it seemed at the beginning".
Italy's budget deficit has breached the EU's 3% ceiling for the past three years, hitting 4.1% in 2005 - the highest level since 1996. Meanwhile, Italy's debt mountain - the third biggest in the world - began rising last year for the first time in a decade and is forecast by the European Commission to hit 107.4% of GDP this year.
International credit rating agencies have warned that they may downgrade the country's credit ratings unless concrete action is taken on the deficit and debt fronts.
