The report by the Istat institute found that 20,000 more people died in the country between July and September 2003 than in the same period of the previous year.

The 2003 heatwave killed an estimated 15,000 mostly elderly people in France, causing a political shockwave in a country that prides itself on its public health system.

The previous official estimate of the number of deaths in Italy, for people aged 65 and more, had been 8,000, although a Catholic community, Sant'Egidio, had estimated the figure at 12,000.

In its regular demographic report, Istat found a lower number of deaths in 2004 than would have been normal given overall trends, and concluded that the drop was due to the excess of deaths in the previous year.

In 2003 "a strong summer heatwave caused almost 20,000 more deaths in the July-to-September period than occurred in the preceding year," the report said.

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