Italy is still assessing whether to shift a world food summit from Rome to Africa, after ministers indicated the meeting would be moved to avoid violent demonstrations such as those in Genoa last month.
"No decision has yet been taken," a government source said. "Every assessment of the issue has to take into account on-going research at an international level and the need to carry out the summit under conditions of security and respect for public order," the source said.
Italy is to host two high-profile meetings in coming months, a summit of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on world hunger between November 5th and 9th in Rome and a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Naples on September 26th and 27th.
The Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, met his foreign and defence ministers and newspapers reported plans were afoot to move the FAO summit to Africa and the NATO meeting to a well-defended military base on the outskirts of Naples from the centre of the port city.
"I don't want to see our cities smashed up and burnt, and in such circumstances I tend to behave like a good father to his family," Rome's la Repubblica newspaper quoted Mr Berlusconi as saying. A month after the G8 met in Genoa, Italy is still trying to deal with the aftermath of three days of violent demonstrations which left one person dead.