Italy is waiting to see what help the United States and Europe plan for carmakers and is looking more at incentives for greener cars than direct help for companies, Industry Minister Claudio Scajola told a newspaper. "We want to move ... in tandem with Europe ... naturally we all have to wait on the real move of the Americans," Scajola told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.
Italy's incentives to buy less polluting new cars end on December 31 and the government must decide whether to extend them. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his cabinet have faced growing calls to renew the incentives as new car sales in Italy - dominated by car maker Fiat - and elsewhere have tumbled in the worst crisis for the industry in decades.
Sales in Europe fell 25.8 percent in November, according to industry figures. In Italy, they were down 29.5 percent. Scajola said he favoured use of environmentally-friendly incentives. "I am not talking about direct help, I prefer to speak of incentives linked to the whole climate package and the reduction of energy consumption," he told the newspaper.