ITALIAN POLL RACE AND IMMIGRATION

I enter-right leader Berlusconi is campaigning for 15 regional councils and sees the vote as a test for next year's general election, which he hopes to win and overthrow the center-left which has governed Italy for the last four years.

Berlusconi spent two weeks sailing round the Italian coast on a cruise liner hired by Forza Italia.

He urged voters to support his coalition on issues such as employment, immigration and tax reduction and accused the Government of granting an amnesty to illegal immigrants.

The Government, however, strongly denied his charges and replied that it only gave permission to stay in the country to those immigrants who had already produced proper papers.

In fact, under the recent amnesty immigrants who can prove they entered the country before March 1998 and have a job and an address can apply for a residence permit even if they entered the country illegally

Center-right stated that over 600,000 permits had been granted, but Government denied this and stated that less than 200,000 had actually been granted, 12,000 were on the waiting list and 4,000 temporary permits had been issued.

Government, in turn, accuses Berlusconi of trying to use every issue to attack the center-left coalition and win votes for the coming polls. Berlusconi is also accused of making anti-democratic proposals and giving rise to xenophobia.