(BRUSSELS) - Whether Naples rubbish, ailing Alitalia's fate or the public finances, Italy and the European Commission have no shortage of sore points likely to ensure rocky relations between Brussels and the incoming government.

In the latest clash, the European Commission on Tuesday filed a lawsuit before an EU court against Italy for failing to tackle a rubbish crisis around the Italian city of Naples, hoping to force Rome to take more urgent action.

Prime minister-elect and billionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi made tackling the crisis one of his campaign promises and has vowed to hold his first cabinet meeting in the southern city.

The crisis will test his credibility because the commission blamed the previous government's failure to come up with an adequate long term solution to the recurring problem of disposing of waste in the Campania region around Naples.

"Action plans for managing rubbish have been proposed in the past but they were never put into practice. That's one of the reasons that we have decided to sue Italy," a commission official said.

Italy faces a similar situation over the rescue of Alitalia, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, crippled by debt and haemorrhaging cash.

Berlusconi, who is due to take the oath of office on May 9 or 10, is opposed to Alitalia being taken over by Air France-KLM, preferring instead a consortium of Italian investors.

To avert the airline's demise, Italy's outgoing government has promised a state loan of 300 million euros, much to the concern of the European Commission, which believes the aid might amount to illegal state aid.

The long-ailing airline has already benefited from a state bailout in the past and under EU rules is banned from another public-sector rescue until 2011.

The European Union's executive arm has given Rome until May 19 to justify the 300 million euro loan, but EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has said it would be difficult for them to demonstrate that it does not amount to state aid.

As if the rubbish crisis and Alitalia were not enough to sour relations between Rome and Brussels, the commission also has concerns about Italy's capacity to improve the public accounts.

Italy must "reduce the weight of its public debt and improve the quality of its public finances. Those are the questions that have to be dealt with by the next Italian government," EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

Berlusconi left bad memories in Brussels from his previous 2001-2006 term, which was marked by a swelling public deficit and steady standoffs with Brussels.

When he left power in 2006, the gap between the Italian government's receipts and expenditures equalled 4.0 percent of gross domestic product, well above EU rules requiring deficits to be kept to less than 3.0 percent.

His successor and former European Commission president Romano Prodi managed to reverse the trend, which was welcomed by Almunia.

The commission is due to pay tribute to the Prodi's government budgetary discipline by closing on Wednesday an excessive deficit action, that was triggered by deficits of Berlusconi's previous government.

Fed-up with Brussels repeated warnings, Berlusconi recently likened them to the irritating buzz of mosquitoes.

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