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.

Keen to show they have learned from the 2003 heatwave, governments in Italy, France, Portugal and Spain have rushed to put in place emergency measures to deal with this summer's heatwave.

In Italy, where temperatures are expected to rise for the next three days throughout the country, four cities -- Milan, Turin, Genoa and Rome -- have activated emergency plans which place 10,000 people at risk under automatic surveillance.

On Sunday the Italian civil protection forces put in place a forecasting system in eight cities that combines weather and health data to predict and prevent heat-related incidents three days out.

In Rome, a "citizens' oasis" network will provide a cool welcome to the city's elderly and a volunteer force known as the "solidarity pony express" will check on at-risk people in their homes.

Rome has 550,000 citizens over the age of 65, some 20 percent of the city's overall population.

Four thousand Romans will also benefit from a heat monitoring system known as "the health watch," which links an electronic bracelet wearer to health authorities via a telephone line.

When the bracelet detects bodily signals related to heat stress, it automatically sends an alarm signal to a central control center.

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