Italy´s Berlusconi vows to beat mafia ´pathology´

Silvio Berlusconi announced a new drive to rid Italy of the terrible pathology of organised crime.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday announced a new drive to rid Italy of the ''terrible pathology'' of organised crime.

- The mafia -- the 'Ndrangheta and the other organisations, are a terrible pathology for our country - Berlusconi said as he unveiled a 10-point campaign against organised crime.

He announced the plan after convening his cabinet in Reggio Calabria, the main city of the southern Calabria region and the stronghold of the 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most dangerous organised crime syndicate.

Three other organised crime syndicates operate in Italy -- the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra, the Camorra in the southern Naples region and Sacra Corona Unita in the Apulia region.

- We have adopted a 10-point plan which includes, among other things, a code of anti-mafia laws and the establishment of a national agency that will manage property seized from criminals - Berlusconi told a news conference.

The agency will be headquartered in Reggio Calabria, he said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the new agency would start work in two weeks, cataloguing the property and speeding the handover of land and other assets to cooperatives.

''One of the main weapons in the fight against the mafia is the seizure of assets,'' Maroni said, adding that authorities have seized some nine billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) worth of property in the last 18 months.

The plan also calls for a new law that will group together all existing legislation in the fight against organised crime and the development of a national map of criminal networks, Maroni said.

Also Thursday, Berlusconi took a new swipe at films about the Sicilian Mafia that he said harm Italy's image. In November the prime minister said he wanted to ''strangle'' the authors of books and films on the Cosa Nostra.

He added that the government planned to ''black list'' businesses with suspected ties to mafia organisations to help honest companies avoid dealings with them.