The air in the northern Italian city "is better than it has been in recent years," Letizia Moratti wrote in a letter to the leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

"Over the first 25 days of the month, the average concentration of PM-10 was lower than in 2009," said the right-wing Moratti, who introduced a tax on high-polluting vehicles in the city centre in 2007.

The populist Northern League party has called for traffic to be alternated between odd- and even-numbered licence plates during February, while the left-wing opposition said non-essential traffic should be banned altogether for three days.

A parents group meanwhile called a protest demonstration Saturday outside city hall.

Pollution in Italy's industrial capital has led a consumer group to lodge a formal legal complaint against Moratti and the provincial and regional presidents.

Environmentalist Damiano Di Simine said the problem stems from Milan's geographical location as well as from failed policies.

Milan's Lombardy region is "one of the least ventilated areas of Europe," said Di Simine, head of Lombardy's chapter of the environmental group Legambiente.

The fact that the densely populated region lies in a plain bordered by the Alps "promotes pollution", he told AFP.

But he added that the region's inhabitants are too dependent on cars for transport.

"We have twice as many cars per capita as Londoners," he said, calling for a pollution tax on all vehicles and greater investment in public transport.

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