ROME, June 16: Umberto Bossi, an outspoken cabinet minister whose right-wing party once advocated the north’s affluent regions break away from the rest of Italy, caused a new political storm on Monday by suggesting that the navy should shoot at boats carrying illegal immigrants into the country.

“The navy and coastguard should defend our shores and use their cannons to do it,” the leader of the Northern League was quoted as saying in an interview published by Il Corriere della Sera.

“After the second or third warning, bang... we fire the cannon,” he was quoted as saying.

Asked whether it would be right to fire at boats carrying women and children, Bossi reportedly said: “Whether they are good or bad, one way or the other illegal immigrants have to be chased away.”

Bossi’s remarks have sparked a flurry of reactions from the more moderate members of Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling House of Freedoms coalition, with a centrist UDC party whip describing the idea of welcoming illegal immigrants with cannon-shots as “worthy of a caveman”.

Bossi later issued a statement saying his views had been “misrepresented”.

“The content of the interview published by Corriere della Sera does by no means reflect my thoughts,” the statement said.

Bossi’s alleged remarks came on the eve of a coalition summit called to discuss its defeat in local elections held recently.

The Northern League has blamed the defeat on the government’s failure to stop the influx of illegal immigrants who reach Italy’s shores on an almost daily basis. According to Interior Ministry data published on Saturday, nearly 5,300 illegal immigrants were believed to have entered Italy during the first six months of 2003.—dpa