Bucharest - Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu on Friday expressed his deepest regret over the killing in Rome of a woman allegedly by a Romanian man, and pledged his full support to Italian counterpart Romano Prodi, news agency Mediafax reported. Romanians were said to have been shocked by the brutal murder of 47-year-old Giovanna Reggiani, with many spontaneously laying candles and flowers on Bucharest's University Square.
Reggiani died Thursday night after being raped and beaten earlier in the week in the Italian capital. A Romanian man in his mid-20s, identified as Nicolae Mailat and a member of the minority Roma community, has been arrested in connection with the crime.
The murder is the latest in a series of crimes in Italy blamed on Romanians and is expected later Friday to result in the Italian government issuing its first expulsion orders for citizens of an EU member state.
Tariceanu and Prodi have agreed on speedy and strenuous efforts to tackle the problem of crime committed in Italy by Romanian migrants, Mediafax said.
Romanian police teams have flown to Italy to assist in the probe into Reggiani's killing and also the wider fight against Romanian- rooted crime.
Around 560,000 Romanians are officially registered as living in Italy, with the actual number however estimated to be as high as 1 million.
Analysts say a large part of the Romanian public accuse the Roma of generating a negative image of the country among citizens abroad.
The self-proclaimed Roma king Florin Cioaba expressed fear that the negative image could be worsened as a result of the killing. Roma advocacy organization Romani Criss meanwhile charged the media with holding an entire minority responsible for the individual crimes.
Efforts in recent years to further integrated Romania's 1.5 million Roma have largely foundered, with a majority of the country's populace hostile to the ethnic community.
