Italy's army began shifting mountains of rubbish from schools and streets in the region around Naples yesterday to keep the city from grinding to a halt after more than two weeks of garbage crisis.

Protesters angered at plans to revive a landfill in their neighbourhood clashed with police who tried to reopen the site so refuse that has piled up on the city's streets can be dumped there.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi and key ministers are to decide a plan of action for the city, where a combination of political incompetence, corruption and organised crime have brought waste collection to a halt.

In the latest episode of the trash emergency, which has dogged the region for 14 years, all rubbish dumps in the Naples area are full and a massive incinerator which was supposed to open at the end of last year, is still not ready.

Garbage collection stopped before Christmas, leaving Neapolitans with no choice but to dump household waste on ever growing piles in the streets.

Many schools, after the Christmas holidays, remained closed amid public health concerns despite the army bulldozing garbage away from buildings. Hundreds of trash piles have been set alight by residents, prompting fears of high levels of cancer-causing dioxin emissions.

Violence has flared several times in recent days between protesters and police outside a landfill in the suburb of Pianura. One man who climbed onto a bulldozer was dragged off by police and beaten with truncheons.

"I climbed up there as a gesture and they hit me in the head and on the back," said the 30-year-old builder who gave his name as Vincenzo. Protesters are trying to halt the re-opening of the waste dump, which was closed in 1996.

Part of Naples' problem is that organised crime groups have made illegal waste disposal an industry that was worth €5.8 billion in 2006, according to a study by conservation group Legambiente.