The Naples trash emergency erupted again Monday morning as scores of protesters clashed with police trying to clear a way to a dump at the centre of the crisis.
Locals threw rocks and metal bolts as police escorted a bulldozer to try to remove an improvised rampart erected overnight at the entrance to the dump.
Police responded with their batons. At least three people were hurt and taken to hospital.
Both sides drew back after the scuffle but the stand-off continued with some 200 protesters blocking the dump.
Tensions remained high but demonstrators claimed ''a first victory'' with the news that trucks carrying material to rebuild the site had turned back after failing to clear a series of citizens' roadblocks.
A rightwing politician at the head of the demo claimed the site contained toxic waste from northern Italy and its re-opening would imperil the health of local people.
Meanwhile the army was sent in to clear rubbish-strewn streets in other parts of the Campania region.
Schools which had been closed because of health risks reopened at the order of Premier Romano Prodi but only a handful of students left their homes.
Prodi had an urgent meeting with Interior Minister Giuliano Amato ahead of scheduled talks with Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio.
Defence Minister Arturo Parisi traveled to Naples to consult with City Mayor Rosa Russo Jervolino.
The city's archbishop, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, told a newspaper that ''the Church is in mourning because it sees the city devastated and humiliated, and people's dignity trampled''.
A former interior minister, Beppe Pisanu of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party, said on Italian radio that the recurrent trash emergencies of the last decade had been stoked by the local Mafia, the Camorra, which makes a lucrative business out of waste recycling.
Other members of the opposition criticised Pecoraro Scanio's Green Party for allegedly impeding the opening of incinerators to cope with the recurrent emergencies.
There were fresh calls for the resignation of Antonio Bassolino, the regional governor who for years was emergency waste commissioner.
