Taxi drivers jammed Rome squares, blocked streets with rubbish containers and left the city and Fiumicino Airport without service Wednesday after the breakdown of talks aimed at freeing up the sector.
''We have been presented with unacceptable conditions,'' protest leader Loreno Bittarelli said after Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni suggested that 500 new licenses should be handed out.
A TV cameraman was pushed and jostled as he tried to film drivers pushing over waste skips to drag them into the middle of a street.
Drivers herded their vehicles into central Piazza Venezia and several other historic squares to protest against the latest deregulation move.
They even drove up the steep back road to Piazza del Campidoglio to shout ''buffoni'' (clowns) at the officials inside.
Veltroni has been trying to raise the number of taxis in Rome to the levels found in other Western capitals.
A tentative move to make more licenses available met with similar protests last year.
