VERGOGNA ITALIANA

By Christian Fraser BBC News, Rome

Italy has spent billions over 15 years trying to tackle the problem

There has been no collection of household waste for two weeks because landfills are full and more than 100,000 tonnes of rubbish lies rotting.

Over the weekend angry Neapolitans clashed with police.

The Mafia in Naples is said to make millions from cheap dumping and has allegedly sabotaged efforts to build new incinerators.

Rising frustration

For two weeks the southern city has been buried beneath mountains of rotting rubbish. In some areas, household rubbish is mixed with toxic waste dumped illegally.

With nowhere to put the waste, local people have been left with no option but to burn it. Firefighters have been working round the clock tackling huge blazes which have spread out of control.

Frustration in the city is rising.

Over the weekend angry Neapolitans threw stones at police who, in turn, charged the protesters with batons.

In one of the more worrying developments, police found effigies of the mayor and the regional governor hanging from lampposts with death threats pinned to their chests.

Protesters blame the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, which is making millions from dumping on the cheap.

The refuse industry is hugely profitable for the mob, which has sabotaged any effort by the local officials to build new dumps while trucking in other people's waste from all around the country.

EU warning

Rubbish collection is a perennial problem which has plagued Naples and its politicians for some 15 years.

The government is conscious it is under severe pressure to find a solution - but this means tackling the mob.

The EU says it is watching closely and is considering legal action for Italy's breach of European waste disposal directives.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi says the problem needs to be solved once and for all, but Neapolitans put little faith in these pledges - they have heard them before.

In 15 years of promises, the Italian state has spent some 2bn euros (£1.5bn) trying, and failing, to clean it up.