Romanian leaders urge Italy to prevent attacks on immigrants

Italy:Romania's leaders have urged Italy to prevent vigilante attacks on their compatriots, amid furious reaction to the alleged murder of an Italian woman by a Romanian immigrant.

Italian prime minister Romano Prodi also cautioned against xenophobia yesterday, but defended emergency deportation measures that one of his left-wing coalition partners denounced as "disgusting and fascist".

Mr Prodi is to meet his Romanian counterpart, Calin Tariceanu, in Rome tomorrow, and is sending one of his ministers to Bucharest today to ease tension with Romania, where much anger over the issue is being directed at Gypsies who are accused of besmirching the country's reputation abroad.

The Vatican issued an appeal yesterday for society to end prejudice towards Gypsies, who make up a large proportion of the more than 500,000 Romanians who live in Italy.

"I condemn any and all violations of the law. Every crime must be punished. Such acts are not characteristic of Romanians," Romanian president Traian Basescu said of the murder of an Italian naval officer's wife, for which a Gypsy from Romania is under arrest.

"I (also) condemn all violent acts against Romanian citizens and any speeches that incite violations of the civil rights of Romanian citizens, regardless of where they may be on EU soil," Mr Basescu added.

The murder was the latest in a series of lurid crimes blamed on Romanian immigrants to Italy, and led to four Romanians being attacked by Italians wielding knives and clubs in Rome last week.

Under pressure from right-wing opponents and an alarmed public, Mr Prodi approved legislation allowing the deportation of foreigners who are deemed to be a social menace, with a judge's signature replacing the need for formal charges and a trial.

"The emergency expulsion decree for EU citizens who pose a public and social danger was a necessary action but also a fair one," Mr Prodi said yesterday.

"I have the duty to respond to the demands of citizens who want more security. But we cannot allow ourselves to criminalise an entire people because of wrongs committed by an individual or a minority. The risk of xenophobic excess must be averted."

The EU's justice and home affairs spokesman, Friso Roscam Abbing, said the legislation, if applied properly, was acceptable to Brussels.

"It is possible to expel citizens of another state if they don't fulfil the [ residency] criteria or represent a threat to public safety or public health," he said. "But the measures must be targeted individually, and every case will have to be assessed individually."

Mr Tariceanu said he feared for his compatriots after Italian police quickly expelled more than 30 Romanians under the emergency measures. Right-wing parties called for thousands more to be sent home and Gypsy slums on the outskirts of major cities to be flattened. "We are worried by the situation of Romanians in Italy," Mr Tariceanu said. "We must protect them."

Mr Prodi's minister for economic development, Pierluigi Bersani, is due in Bucharest today to soothe friction between the traditional allies. Italy is the biggest foreign investor in Romania, where people proudly trace the Latin roots of their language back to occupation by the Romans. "I will try and reassure them over a possible upsurge in xenophobia," Mr Bersani said.