The Italian government has put the opening of a new waste dump near Naples on hold after weeks of protests by residents, but demonstrators say this is not enough as rubbish continues to pile up in the streets.
The head of the civil protection authority, sent to Naples by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to deal with the latest garbage crisis, has proposed suspending the opening of the new dump "to pursue optimal environmental and health conditions."
Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso has made the agreement conditional on the protests ending, but new clashes erupted in the outskirts of Naples as demonstrators demanded legal guarantees the new dump would be abandoned.
Mayors of garbage-strewn towns near the planned new waste site, where residents complain of the stench and of toxic waste coming from an existing dump, refused to sign up to Bertolaso's proposal on Sunday.
"Our citizens wanted more guarantees, we could not obtain them so we decided not to sign up to the document," Gennaro Langella, mayor of Boscoreale, told reporters after talks with Bertolaso. A new meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday.
Protesters clashed with police overnight in Terzigno, the town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius which has been at the heart of the protest. Police said six people were injured in the clashes and two protesters were held.
