May 15, 2008, 17:50 GMT
Rome - Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni moved Thursday to reassure his Romanian counterpart, Cristian David, that Italy will not single out Romanian immigrants in a planned crackdown on crime.
'There is no problem with the Romanian community in Italy, there's a problem with security which is being felt by (Italian) citizens, and to which the government intends to give an efficient response,' Maroni said, at a joint news conference with David in Rome.
'We have to target criminals for the acts they commit. Those foreigners who are delinquents must be expelled, something which is possible,' Maroni said.
David said 'excellent bilateral relations' between Italy and Romania would be intensified 'especially with regards to police cooperation.'
The ministers spoke after meeting that came amid moves by Italy's new conservative government to tighten controls on immigration, including from other European Union member states like Romania.
'Over the last few days I heard criticism aimed at the (Italian government's proposed) security package, but talk of mass expulsions is unfounded,' Maroni said.
Earlier this week Romania's Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu denounced reports that Italy was considering reimposing border checks, saying such measures could fuel xenophobia.
Maroni, who is from the anti-immigration Northern League party, has said he favours making illegal immigration a crime, and that such a measure could be included in a security package to be approved soon by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.
Maroni has also endowed the government's top public order official in Milan with special powers to deal with camps in the city occupied by ethnic Roma - many of whom are of Romanian nationality and who are often associated with crime.
At the Thursday news conference, Maroni announced he had given public order officials in Rome and Naples the same powers, following requests from the cities' mayors.
On Tuesday authorities in Naples evacuated a Roma camp torched by local residents who were incensed by a Roma girl's alleged attempt to kidnap a baby.
By Wednesday the 100 or so Roma in the camp situated in the low-income Ponticelli district had been moved to other Roma settlements in Naples.
The incident is the latest of a series of high profile cases involving Italy's Roma community.
Late last year the previous centre-left government expelled over 200 Romanian nationals with criminal records in the wake of the murder, allegedly by a Roma man of Romanian origin, of a housewife in Rome.
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