Dozens of people have been injured in the violence, with some protesters throwing rocks and setting garbage trucks alight during running battles with riot police wielding truncheons and firing tear gas.

The skirmishes in small towns near Naples followed a decision by local authorities to move ahead with plans to open a vast garbage tip in the area, a national park, where there is already a dump.

The Cava Vitiello tip is planned to be the biggest garbage dump in Europe with a three-million-tonne capacity and will take waste mainly from Naples.

Residents have held almost daily sit-ins over the last month to call for the closure of the current tip, which they insist is full to overflowing and causing health problems, particularly in young children.

Piles of malodorous garbage have also been accumulating in the city of Naples itself, raising fears of a repeat of the impasse in 2007 and 2008 that saw tens of thousands of tonnes of untreated waste accumulate around the city.

The long-running issue has been blamed on a lack of local incinerators, and landfill sites controlled by the local mafia, the Camorra, some of which were used for the illegal dumping of toxic waste.

The groups of masked residents rioting in the streets of Terzigno are not the only protesers.

Non-violent campaigners include the "Vesuvian Mothers" group, a band of local mothers who have spent the last few weeks protesting daily with their children.

They say life in the vicinity of a tip is unbearable, with residents forced to keep their windows always closed to keep the stench of garbage at bay.

The residents say dangerous materials and hospital waste are dumped illegally in the current tip, posing serious health risks.

The new dump in Terzigno, just eight kilometres (five miles) from Pompeii, will be on the edge of the Vesuvio National Park, around 135 square kilometres of rare natural beauty in the Bay of Naples.

It will also be 800 metres from the edge of the town.

The protected area of rare fauna, wildlife and agriculture is home to Mount Vesuvius, best known for its eruption that destroyed the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

But the head of the Campania region where Naples is located, Stefano Caldoro, was quoted by La Repubblica daily as saying the new dump would be "safe, modern and without risk for citizens."

Caldoro also told La Stampa newspaper: "The Camorra is making money off this. We've gone 15 years without managing the problem, without dumps, without incinerators and we haven't worked enough on recycling."

As the Italian government started its emergency meeting to discuss the crisis, protesters in Terzigno held up a placard, appealing to the Virgin Mary to save them from the crisis.

According to local legend, the Virgin Mary miraculously intervened during the last major eruption of the volcano in 1822, saving residents by stopping the lava and ash in their path.

"Stop the rubbish like you stopped the lava!" the sign read.

The inhabitants of Terzigno and several other municipalities in the area are planning to bring their case to Rome on Friday, where they are to hold a rally.

Critics have accused Berlusconi of failing to keep his promise to visit the town and resolve the crisis.

Tensions have been rising in the area in recent weeks on this flashpoint issue, which helped Berlusconi to his election victory in 2008 after he promised to stamp out the waste disposal problem in the area.

The European Court of Justice earlier this year criticised Italy, saying it had no adequate system for waste disposal in the Naples region and warning that the problem was a risk to human health and the environment.

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