Italians get terror warning

The Rome blast follows an attempt to blow up Milan's Duomo

Italy's interior minister has warned that the country's second bomb incident in four days could signal the start of a new outbreak of terrorism.

A blast shortly after midday (1100 GMT) on Friday rocked the offices of communist newspaper Il Manifesto in central Rome, injuring a right-wing extremist suspected by police of planting the device.

The incident came just four days after police defused a bomb on the roof of Milan cathedral, hours before it was timed to go off.

Action by the state once again will not be found wanting

Interior Minister Enzo Bianco

Interior Minister Enzo Bianco vowed the state would fight back against the attacks. Italy suffered years of violence by both left and right-wing extremists in the 1970s and 1980s.

"I have often told parliament there was a danger of a resurgence of various forms of terrorism," he told the Chamber of Deputies. "Action by the state once again will not be found wanting."

Prime Minister Giuliano Amato described the attack as "an assault on democracy".

Elections

The incidents in Milan and Rome have raised concerns of a return to political violence four months before Italy holds a general election.

Extremist of both left and right appear to present a threat, although the BBC's David Willey in Rome says that bomb incidents are not uncommon in Italy in the run-up to general elections.

Anarchist group International Solidarity said it planted the failed Milan device.

I heard an explosion and then parts of the ceiling fell down

Manifesto editor Riccardo Barenghi

The man injured on Friday, named as Andrea Insabato, is a known member of an extreme right-wing group.

He is currently being treated in hospital. An alleged accomplice escaped.

Mr Insabato was found severely injured by newspaper staff shortly after the explosion.

The blast went off in one of the paper's entrance halls - apparently prematurely, police said.

It broke windows and caused some damage, but injured nobody apart from the alleged bomber himself.

"I heard an explosion and then parts of the ceiling fell down," Manifesto's editor-in-chief Riccardo Barenghi said.