(ROME) - The head of Italy's anti-immigration Northern League, flush from a strong showing in elections two weeks ago, on Wednesday urged a review of the Schengen treaty allowing free circulation in 22 EU member states.

"There are things to negotiate," Umberto Bossi told lawmakers, according to the ANSA news agency. "We should review Schengen because we cannot go on like this," he added, without elaborating.

EU members can travel freely in the Schengen zone, which includes 22 of the bloc's 27 member states.

On Tuesday, another Northern League stalwart, former reforms minister Roberto Calderoli, said "allowing free circulation to new members like Romania was a mistake."

In an interview with the weekly Gente, Calderoli said: "The Schengen treaty was for European countries that were socio-economically homogeneous, which the new members are not. Inevitably, the poorest sections of these populations spread west, increasing petty crime."

The mid-April elections marked a breakthrough for the Northern League, which nearly doubled its strength in parliament with more than eight percent of the vote, prompting fears that the small anti-immigration party would unduly influence prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi's agenda.

The day after the elections, Berlusconi vowed to crack down on illegal immigrants, saying those involved in crime were part of an "army of evil."

Berlusconi, elected with a solid margin, vowed to cooperate with Italy's neighbours in "deporting non-EU citizens who are here and do not have work or home and are forced into crime in order to live."

The incoming interior minister, Northern League member Roberto Maroni, said after the vote that he wants to beef up policing and step up "cleansing" of illegal immigrants.

"We need more cleansing and more police," he told the leading daily Corriere della Sera, linking crime to "immigration, often clandestine."

Maroni also hinted that specific steps would be taken against Romanian citizens.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.