Italy has been ''weak'' in responding to crimes committed by the Roma community, according to top members of the Romanian government.
Italy has also been ''too soft'' in allowing gypsy camps, ''which serve as a base to carry out crime,'' Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popeascu Tariceanu said on Monday.
Speaking on the sidelines of a government meeting on a wave of crime committed by the Roma in Italy, the prime minister observed that there was no similar crime problem in France and Germany because these countries did not allow the nomads to set up camp.
''The authorities there intervened immediately, without letting this become a political issue,'' he added.
Earlier, Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu accused Italy of being ''weak'' in its response to crime committed by the Roma.
''Those who commit a crime should answer for this crime,'' he added.
The Romanian government said it was ready to work with Italy's new center-right government to combat crimes committed by the gypsies, who it said have tainted the image of all Romanians working abroad.
''We will work with Italian authorities to insure that honest Romanians are not hurt by Roma crimes and to combat any anti-Romanian feelings or xenophobia spreading in the peninsula,'' Melescanu said.
He added that it was in both his country's and Italy's interest to avoid allowing gypsy crimes to have negative effect on their otherwise ''excellent'' relations.
Romanian Interior Minister Cristian David is slated to travel to Rome this week to meet with local authorities.
In view of the tough new immigration laws promised by the new government, the Romanian government is keen to draw a distinction between the nomad Roma and Romanians in general.
Only 2.5% of the Romanian population is Roma or gypsy.
Speaking on Italian radio on Monday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Italians and the Italian government were nether racist nor xenophobic but wanted a firm and clear policy in regard to immigration.
Immigration and Roma crime jumped back into the national spotlight after a 16-year-old Roma girl was caught trying to kidnap a child from her home in a Naples suburb over the weekend.
Some two million Romanians, almost 10% of the population, have emigrated to the European Union, which ti joined in 2007, over the past six years looking for work.
The majority of these have settled in Italy or Spain.
Because of this emigration, Romania now finds itself with a labor shortage.
