German and Italian interior ministers are working on ideas to set up European-scale riot squads to quell disturbances like those at the Genoa G8 summit, it was announced Sunday.
"We must find a new system of training for our police forces, which are being targetted more frequently," Germany's Otto Schily said after talks in northern Italy.
The two said they had agreed on the need to exchange ideas on dealing with the phenomenon of violence at international summits.
Germany and Italy had an "almost identical line on dealing with demonstrations of this kind," Schily said.
The German suggested setting up a European riot police force for deployment at major international meetings.
Italy's Claudio Scajola called for "greater collaboration between European countries, new training for police and perhaps also the creation of a European riot police able to maanage situations in collaboration with local police."
Schily admitted some German demonstrators had behaved badly during anti-globalisation protests at last month's Genoa summit of eight leading industrial nations. He also stressed his confidence in Italian justice.
But the German recalled pointedly that some German protesters had also been "subjected to police treatment which in some cases did not conform to the rules of a civil state."
The Italian police have come in for scathing domestic and foreign criticism for the brutal treatment of demonstrators in Genoa. One young Italian was shot dead by a police officer and hundreds were beaten and injured.
Three senior police commanders have been removed from their posts and a parliamentary enquiry is scheduled to report Tuesday in Rome.
Scajola, who last week survived an opposition motion of no confidence in the Italian upper house over the scandal, promised this weekend that "full light will be thrown on the case."
Schily was also quoted Sunday by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag as saying: "In the long term, I propose the creation of specially-trained police forces to, if possible, help defuse and, if necessary, combat violence with appropriate severity."
European nations should not let militants dictate events, he said.
The head of Italy's anti-terrorism unit, the country's second highest-ranking police officer and the Genoa police chief Francocesco Colucci were dismissed after an internal inquiry on police actions during the July 20-22 summit -- ROME (AFP)
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