ROME, Jan 15 (AFP) - Several Italian cities, and notably Rome and Milan, are to ban private cars from their central neighbourhoods this Sunday due to excessive air pollution, officials said on Saturday.
The ban in Rome, to run from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (0900 to 1700 GMT) will apply to around half of the central area within the city's ring-road, municipal officials said.
In Milan, a major economic centre in northern Italy, a similar ban will run from 9:00 am to midday and then from 3:00 to 6:00 pm.
Other northern cities, notably Bergamo, Como and Brescia, were applying similar bans.
The measures come amid efforts by many Italian cities to curb pollution by placing restrictions on the movements of private vehicles.
From next week both Rome and Milan are to test a measure banning cars with even- or odd-numbered license plates on alternate Thursdays.
Similar schemes are already in place in cities such as Venice, Turin and Verona. Florence, meanwhile, has decreed that on three days each week vehicles that are not equipped with catalytic converters on their exhaust systems are banned from its ancient streets.
01/15/2005 09:33 GMT - AFP