“Today’s rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policy makers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the euro zone,” S&P said in a press release announcing the downgrade.

In a potentially more ominous setback, talks broke down between Greece and its creditors over a debt swap seen as crucial to avert a Greek default, although officials said more talks are likely next week.

If Greece cannot persuade banks and insurers to accept voluntary losses on their bond holdings, a second international rescue package for the euro zone’s most heavily indebted state will unravel, raising the prospect of bankruptcy in late March, when it has to redeem 14.4 billion euros in maturing debt.

S&P lowered its long-term rating on Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain by two notches, and cut its rating on Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia by one notch.

The move puts highly indebted Italy on the same BBB+ level as Kazakhstan and pushes Portugal into junk status.

The credit-rating agency affirmed the current long-term ratings for Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

U.S. stocks slumped earlier amid buzz about the possible downgrades, though finished well off their lows. The euro fell by more than a cent to $1.2650 on the news. European shares closed lower. Safe-haven German 10-year bond futures rose to a new record high while the risk premium investors charge on French, Spanish, Italian and Belgian debt widened.

The credit-rating agency put all 14 euro-zone nations — Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain — on “negative” outlook for a possible further downgrade.

Germany was the only country to emerge totally unscathed with its triple-A rating and a stable outlook.

A negative outlook indicates that S&P believes there is at least a one-in-three chance that a country’s rating will be lowered in 2012 or 2013.

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, speaking after an emergency meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, played down the impact of Europe’s second biggest economy being downgraded to AA+ for the first time since 1975.

“This is not a catastrophe. It’s an excellent rating. But it’s not good news,” Baroin told France 2 television, saying the government would not respond with further austerity measures.

In December, S&P placed the ratings of 15 euro zone countries on credit watch negative — including those of top-rated Germany and France, the region’s two biggest economies — and said “systemic stresses” were building up as credit conditions tighten in the 17-nation bloc.

Since then, the European Central Bank has flooded the banking system with cheap three-year money to avert a credit crunch. At the time, the U.S.-based ratings agency said it could also downgrade the euro zone’s current bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility

Euro zone finance ministers responded jointly by saying in a statement they had taken “far-reaching measures” in response to the sovereign debt crisis and were accelerating reforms towards stronger economic union.

Greek negotiators who have repeatedly voiced confidence in a deal in which private creditors would accept writedowns of 50 percent of the face value of their bond holdings said they were now less hopeful, warning of “catastrophic consequences” for Greece and Europe if they failed.

“Yesterday we were cautious and confident. Today we are less optimistic,” a source close to the Greek task force in charge of the negotiations said.

The Institute for International Finance, negotiating on behalf of banks, said: “Under the circumstances, discussions with Greece and the official sector are paused for reflection on the benefits of a voluntary approach.”

The two sides are divided principally over the interest rate Greece will end up paying, which determines how much of a hit banks take. While both appear to be engaged in brinkmanship, there are also doubts about the take-up rate of any voluntary deal, since some hedge funds have bought up Greek debt and want to be paid out in full or trigger default insurance.

The double blow of the S&P news and the stalling of the Greek debt talks came after a brighter start to the year with Spain and Italy beginning their marathon debt rollover at lower borrowing costs this week.

The European Central Bank’s move last month to flood banks with cheap three-year liquidity helped ease a worsening credit crunch and provided funds which governments hope some will use to buy sovereign bonds.

Rescue Fund Weakened

S&P said the euro zone faced stresses including tightening credit conditions, rising risk premiums for a growing number of sovereigns, simultaneous deleveraging by governments and households and weakening economic growth prospects.

It also cited political obstacles to a solution to the crisis due to “an open and prolonged dispute among European policy makers over the proper approach to address challenges.”

Austerity and budget discipline alone were not sufficient to fight the debt crisis and risked becoming self-defeating, the ratings agency said.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble played down the news, saying: “In the past months, we’ve come to agree that the ratings agencies’ judgments should not be overvalued.”

France and Austria were at risk because of their banks’ exposure to the debt of peripheral euro zone countries and Hungary respectively, as well as the weakening economic outlook for Europe. Italy and Spain face historically high borrowing costs.

The cut in France’s rating is a serious setback for the center-right Sarkozy’s chances of re-election in May and could weaken the euro zone’s rescue fund, reducing its ability to help countries in difficulty.

France is the second largest guarantor of the EFSF, which has a triple-A rating. Preserving that status would require members to increase their guarantees, which could prove politically unpopular.

In their statement, the euro zone finance ministers said they would do all they could to ensure the rescue fund keeps its top rating.

After vowing for months to do everything to preserve Paris’ top-notch standing, Sarkozy appeared to prepare voters last month for the loss of the prized status before the election.

His political opponents pounced on the S&P decision as a verdict on the failure of his policies.

“This is in reality a double downgrade. It is a downgrade of our sovereign rating that will affect the country’s reputation, with heavy consequences, and it is also a downgrade compared to our main neighbor, Germany, with which we had equal status up to now,” centrist candidate Francois Bayrou said.

Socialist party leader Martine Aubry said: “Mr. Sarkozy will be remembered as the president who downgraded France.”

It is not clear how far the downgrade will increase France’s borrowing costs, since markets have already anticipated the prospect by raising the French risk premium over German Bunds.

“One notch is priced in but not more. The Franco-German spread can widen. It is about 130 basis points for the 10-year bond. The maximum level reached was 180 to 190 basis points and it can go back to this level,” said Alessandro Giansanti, senior rates strategist at ING in Amsterdam.

‘Triple-A Is a Dying Species’

The consequence of the downgrade is that the EFSF can’t keep its triple-A rating, said Commerzbank chief economist Joerg Kraemer.

“That may irritate markets in the short term but wouldn’t be a big problem in a world where the U.S. and Japan also don’t have a triple-A rating anymore. Triple-A is a dying species,” he said.

John Wraith, Fixed Income Strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch told CNBC the mass downgrade is another serious step in the crisis and would lead to a serious worsening of sentiment.

“To a large degree, it’s widely anticipated,” Wraith said. “However, we think the reality of it is going to have a knock-on, ongoing impact on these markets.”

“It clearly deteriorates still further the credit worthiness of a lot of the European banks and just keeps that negative feedback loop between struggling banks and the sovereigns that may have to support them if things go from bad to worse in full force,” Wraith added.

The downgrade could automatically require some investment funds to sell bonds of affected states, making those countries’ borrowing costs rise still further.

“It’s been priced in for several weeks, but the market had been lulled into complacency over the holidays, and the new year began with a bounce in risk appetite, thanks partly to a good Spanish auction,” said Samarjit Shankar, Director Of Global Fx Strategy at BNY Mellon in Boston.

“But the Italian auction brought us back to earth,” he said.

Italy’s three-year debt costs fell below 5 percent on Friday, but its first bond sale of the year failed to match the success of a Spanish auction the previous day, reflecting the heavy refinancing load Rome faces over the next three months.

CNBC

The blast hit a jeep carrying French UNIFIL troops on the outskirts of the Mediterranean port city of Tyre.

“I can confirm that a UNIFIL vehicle was hit by an explosion in Tyre,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. “Five peacekeepers were injured.”

The attack follows bombings in May and July against French and Italian peacekeepers and comes as the United Nations prepares a review of its 12,000-strong operation, which was beefed up after Israel’s 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006.

A Reuters reporter saw a jeep with its windows blown out and several wounded peacekeepers at the scene minutes after the explosion in the Burj al-Shamali district on the eastern edge of Tyre.

Most of the injuries were light but medical sources said one of the UNIFIL soldiers was badly wounded.

Security sources said two passersby were also hurt.

Italy reduced its contribution to UNIFIL to 1,100 soldiers from 1,800 after six of its peacekeepers were wounded in May, although diplomats said the decision to cut its contingent had been taken before the attack.

Two months later six French soldiers were wounded in another attack.

“DISGRACEFUL” ATTACK

Tenenti said Friday’s bombing would “not divert us from our task” and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati also said the peacekeepers would continue their mission.

“Lebanon considers these attacks as targeting its own security and stability, not only UNIFIL,” Mikati said. “These attacks will not have an influence on UNIFIL’s work in the south, nor on the French contingent.”

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France would “not be intimidated by such disgraceful acts”, urging Lebanon to bring the perpetrators to justice and ensure the safety and freedom of movement of U.N. forces.

UNIFIL has about 12,000 troops and naval personnel in Lebanon after its expansion under U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 that halted the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon.

It operates alongside 15,000 Lebanese army troops who are deployed in the south of the country to keep peace near the border with Israel and prevent weapons transfers in an area that is a stronghold of Hezbollah guerrillas.

The U.N. Security Council called in August for a review of UNIFIL operations in Lebanon by the end of the year, aimed partly at assessing whether the Lebanese army could assume greater role in operations. Diplomats say the results of the review are unlikely to be issued for several months.

The border area has remained relatively quiet since 2006, although 10 Palestinian demonstrators were killed in May after Israeli troops opened fire on a protest on the Lebanese side of the border, the Lebanese army and security sources said.

Last year a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist were killed when Lebanese and Israeli troops clashed at the border.

Photo: An Italian military expert, part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, inspects a damaged U.N. vehicle on the outskirts of the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon December 9, 2011.

Reuters

President Giorgio Napolitano formally tapped Mr. Monti on Sunday evening after a day of meetings with political leaders across the spectrum, almost all of whom had pledged their support for a government of technocrats to guide Italy into its post-Berlusconi future.

“The president of the republic … has received Senator Mario Monti and conferred a mandate to form a government,” said a statement from the presidential palace, according to Reuters.

But in a sign of political wrangling to come, the leader of Mr. Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party said on Sunday that the party would support a Monti government only for as long as it could fulfill its mandate to push through measures to help reduce Italy’s $2.6 trillion public debt and increase growth to keep the country competitive. The party had been pushing for early elections, while media reports say Mr. Monti hopes to serve until the end of the current legislature in 2013.

Mr. Berlusconi addressed the nation in a video message on Sunday evening, declaring his “love and passion” for Italy and his bitterness at having been jeered on Saturday after he tendered his resignation, an act he said had been one of “generosity” toward the country.

European leaders had come to see Mr. Berlusconi as a liability to Italy and the single currency as Italy’s borrowing rates soared last week to levels that have forced other euro zone countries to seek bailouts. Months of political deadlock broke last week when Mr. Berlusconi lost his majority in a technical vote in the Lower House. Humbled, he resigned on Saturday after Parliament approved the austerity measures.

On Monday, Mr. Monti was expected to present a cabinet of non-politicians and introduce his program before Parliament, where a majority must vote confidence in his government.

In his video address, Mr. Berlusconi said the crisis had hit the euro, not just Italy, and he called on the European Central Bank to expand its role to help save the euro.

In a letter to a right-wing leader published on the Italian news agency ANSA on Sunday, Mr. Berlusconi blamed the loss of his control of the Parliament on a breakaway group led by a former ally who split from his People of Liberty party in 2010.

The group, Mr. Berlusconi said, was driven by “the logic of petty blackmail” and “trasformismo,” a storied Italian tradition in which politicians change their positions to suit the demands of the moment, which he called “the oldest vice of Italian politics,” ANSA reported.

Such “trasformismo” was a guiding principle of the revolving-door governments of Italy’s postwar period and into the 1990s, after the collapse of the old political order in a bribery scandal and with the end of the cold war.

It was eclipsed in the Berlusconi years, aided by a 2005 electoral law that helped create the semblance of a two-party system. In a noted change from the tenor of the Berlusconi government, which in recent years has been overshadowed by the prime minister’s sex scandals, Mr. Monti attended Mass on Sunday morning with his wife in the church of Sant’Ivo in Rome’s historic center.

Many Italians awoke to what they felt was a new day in Italian politics, even if many didn’t quite believe that Mr. Berlusconi, a mainstay in their lives for nearly two decades, was really gone.

Some young Italians who increasingly feel shut out of their own futures in a labor market tat protects older workers, took Berlusconi’s departure as a good sign.

“We’ve been following what happened since the summer with growing concern. The government’s complete immobility, deafness and incapability to understand reality and act accordingly was very scary,” said Laura Calderoni, 36, an architect in Rome.

NYT

His resignation came just days after the fall of Prime Minister George A. Papandreou in Greece. Both men were swept away amid a larger crisis that has threatened the entire European Union, in which roiling financial markets have upended traditional democratic processes.

Though it was met by cheering crowds in Rome, the end of Mr. Berlusconi’s 17-year chapter in Italian politics, characterized by his defiance and fortitude, sets off a jarring political transition. “This is the most dramatic moment of our recent history,” Ferruccio de Bortoli, the editor of the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, said Saturday.

After borrowing rates on Italian bonds soared last week to levels that have required other euro zone countries to seek bailouts, Mr. Berlusconi pledged to step down after the Italian Parliament approved austerity measures sought by the European Union.

The lower house gave their final approval to some of the measures on Saturday afternoon, and two hours later, he officially submitted his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano.

An impromptu orchestra and choir gathered outside the presidential palace, where Mr. Berlusconi resigned, playing the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.”

Hundreds of spectators gathered outside, shouting “buffoon” and “go home” to a polarizing leader once loved by many, making Mr. Berlusconi the very embodiment of the Italian saying that the tenor is applauded until he is booed off stage. Some in the crowd were popping bottles of champagne. And cars and mopeds in downtown Rome waved Italian flags and honked their horns in celebration, as they do when the national soccer team wins.

Fulvia Roscini, 47, a nurse, had brought her 8-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter outside the prime minister’s office on Saturday evening. “We came here because I wanted my kids to see this,” she said, “to see that another country is possible and is already here.”

As he left his residence on Saturday before resigning, Mr. Berlusconi waved to crowds of supporters, but he left the presidential palace through a secondary exit, to avoid the crowds.

Mr. Berlusconi did not speak publicly after resigning. But the ANSA news agency quoted him telling aides that the jeering “is something that deeply saddens me.”

In a statement, Mr. Napolitano, who as head of state will oversee the transition, said he would hold consultations with party leaders to nominate a new prime minister on Sunday.

In this case, the discussions will likely be a formality. For days, Mr. Monti, 68, a well-respected economist with close ties to European Union officials, has been identified as the front-runner.

Mr. Monti met on Saturday with Mr. Berlusconi and earlier in the day with Mario Draghi, the recently installed president of the European Central Bank, reinforcing the notion that financial and European institutions supported Mr. Monti’s appointment.

The mandate of the next government will be to push through measures to help reduce Italy’s $2.6 trillion public debt and increase growth to keep the country competitive.

The austerity measures approved by lawmakers include selling state assets and increasing the retirement age to 67 from 65 by 2026. They would also decrease the power of professional guilds, privatize municipal services and offer tax breaks to companies that hire young workers.

Key political parties, with the exception of the Northern League, an important member of Mr. Berlusconi’s center-right coalition, have said they will support Mr. Monti.

But the wrangling over crucial details is not over. Italy’s political parties are fighting to maintain their positions in future political constellations and to ensure their re-electability after passing unpopular measures demanded by tough economic times.

Some members of Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition want early elections to form a new government with a new mandate. But the main opposition party and other lawmakers, fearing that elections would lead to an unsustainable period of market turmoil, support a transitional government.

The prospect of early elections diminished on Saturday, however, when Mr. Berlusconi’s party said in a statement that it would support a Monti government. But they added that they awaited the “names of the cabinet members, the program of the new government and the timing of the mandate.”

The events in Greece and Italy this month raised concerns across the Italian political spectrum about the growing power of financial markets to shake governments. In Italy and elsewhere, a dysfunctional political class has been “impotent” in the face of market dynamics and their impact on people’s lives, the commentator Luigi La Spina wrote Saturday in the Turin daily newspaper La Stampa.

The atmosphere in downtown Rome on Saturday evening was one of celebration mixed with uncertainty.

“I know that the crisis won’t be over just because he leaves, and I’m a bit concerned about what will happen with the markets, but I know that this country will be better without him,” said Isabella La Monica, a retiree, who was waiting in front of the prime minister’s residence. “Things can’t get any worse.”

NYT

The budget law is expected to be passed by the end of this month, but its passage might now be accelerated.

Napolitano said Berlusconi was aware of the consequences of a vote in parliament on Tuesday in which his center-right coalition failed to secure a majority in the lower house.

It said he had noted the urgent necessity of seeing the new budget law approved in parliament.

“Once this engagement is fulfilled, the Prime Minister will hand in his mandate to the head of state who will proceed with appropriate consultations, paying close attention to the positions and proposals of all political forces,” the statement said.

Reuters

After the sudden fall of the Qaddafi regime in August, the case of Sadr’s disappearance resurfaced, with a number of loyalists hopeful that the decades-old mystery would be solved.

Many have put forth theories that the Shia leader was executed under Qaddafi’s orders, while others have refused to believe he is dead, clinging to the thought that he is still imprisoned somewhere in the North African country. “The families are adamant about their absolute priority being the release of Sadr and his two companions,” said Mallat, “and we will do all we can to ensure that this priority guides our efforts.”

“An important development is that one of the people indicted in the case just said he gave an false initial testimony in the investigation conducted by Italy,” Mallat added, stressing that there was an agreement between Libyan and Italian authorities to cover up their roles in the disappearance.

According to the lawyer, who is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, a number of individuals, who no longer feel threatened by the toppled Libyan leader, are confessing to having given false testimonies. This is the case of Abd al-Rahman Ghawila, a Libyan passport official at the time of the disappearance, who spoke out during an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday. Ghawila confessed to having been forced by Qaddafi and a number of Libyan security officials to lie.

Following the immediate disappearance of Sadr, Qaddafi claimed that the Shia leader had left Libya for Rome. But Ghawila admitted that he had neither stamped Sadr’s passport nor had he seen him at the airport, as he had testified during the Italian investigation over 20 years ago, Mallat said.

“Three years ago, the Italians re-opened the investigation at the request of Qaddafi and they came to the conclusion that the Imam had actually arrived in Italy. We now know that this had come as an arrangement between the Italian and Libyan authorities,” Mallat said. “This adds an important dimension that needs to be advanced, and that we will advance, namely the responsibility of the Italian government, and particularly [President Silvio] Berlusconi and intelligence offices in DIGOS, in creating false testimonies and using them at the request of Qaddafi.”

“It does not say much about the moral standards of the judge who decided the case,” he added, “although it is clear from her decision that she was mixed up in her conclusion.”

“If there were any doubts left, the [abovementioned development] shows how much the false testimonies have been used by Qaddafi to make him seem innocent.”

“Our request of course has been the continued and enhanced developments of the investigation in Libya now that the dictator is out of power, and the full trial, now in absentia, of Qaddafi and a number of people who collaborated with him to mask the situation,” stressed the lawyer. “We will also collaborate with the International Criminal Court.”

“On all these fronts, the priority in all our actions is the release of the Imam and his companions, and the truth about a crime that has remained unpunished,” he concluded.

The Lebanese Supreme court has set the sentencing for November 18. Now Lebanon

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that Rome is urging all EU nations to recall their envoys to Syria.

Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, on a three-day visit to India, said in television interviews that he had asked India to use its influence on the Security Council to thwart the West.

“I am here to brief the Indian leadership against the prefabricated misinformation and on the unrealistic propaganda machinery against Syria,” Mekdad said in an interview with India’s NewsX TV station.

“Some circles in the West and in the United States want to aggravate the situation in Syria by supporting terrorist groups against the will of the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people,” he said.

He added in a separate interview with the CNN-IBN station: “What we expect India to do is not to allow Western countries to use the UN as a forum to support terrorism, to support extremism and to support the killings of innocent people.”

India, which has expressed “concern” over the violence and called for restraint, assumed the month-long presidency of the UN’s top body on Monday.

On the same day, the UN Security Council held a first session of emergency talks on the deadly crackdown, with Western powers again demanding a condemnation of the violence. A closed session ended with no agreement.

The emergency meeting in New York heard that 3,000 people had gone missing and 12,000 had been taken prisoner since the protests began in March.

India in a statement late Monday expressed its “concern” over the violence.

“The external affairs minister expressed concern on the recent escalation of violence (and) he urged the government of Syria to exercise restraint, abjure violence and expedite the implementation of political reforms taking into account the aspirations of the people of Syria,” it added.

Mr Mekdad said the Syrian government had invited all stakeholders to a “National Dialogue” to help end the protests.

“All forces willing to participate in the National Dialogue are welcome, but Syria will never discuss or negotiate with terrorists and extremist groups,” he said after meeting Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna for official talks on Monday.

Meanwhile Italy’s foreign ministry recalled its ambassador for consultations, citing Damascus’ “horrible repression against the civilian population”.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that Rome is urging all EU nations to recall their envoys to Syria.

Telegraph

Photo: Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (C) shakes hands with Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna (R) in New Delhi

Senators voted in favor of reducing Italy’s contribution to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon by   700 out of  the 1,780 force , as international and local condemnation of Tuesday’s attack increased.

President Michel Suleiman telephoned French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy to express his concern for the victims and called for the speedy apprehension of the bombers.

“Destabilizing security is forbidden under any pretense, especially against friendly states that have sent their troops to help the Lebanese Army in safeguarding security and stability in the country’s south and helping implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701,” a statement from Baabda Palace said.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri also condemned what he termed a “terrorist attack.”

“Lebanon, in all of its national components, will remain loyal to France’s commitments to its causes, and to the role played by the French battalion in the framework of the tasks assigned to it within UNIFIL to maintain security and stability in southern Lebanon,” a statement from Hariri’s press office said.

Hezbollah and Amal Movement also condemned Thursday the bomb attack and urged the government to find and punish the perpetrators.

“Hezbollah and Amal condemn this criminal act … and call for an urgent investigation into the incident and efforts to find the perpetrators and punish them,” said a joint statement issued by Hezbollah and Amal at the end of a coordination meeting in the southern port city of Tyre.

Romans are taking it so seriously that local newspapers have even been publishing survival guides with tips of what to do – if – the ground starts to tremble.

The panic has been fanned by Facebook, Twitter and text messages around a prediction by Raffaele Bendani, a seismologist who forecast in 1915 that a “big one” would hit Rome on Wednesday.

He is also said to have predicted other earthquakes which hit Italy during the last hundred years before his death in 1979.

Massimo La Rocca, headmaster of a school in the Trastevere district, said: “We have had quite a few parents calling in and saying they will not be sending their children in.

“I’ve told them the school will remain open and there is nothing to be scared about but they are adamant – although this is not a justifiable absence for a pupil.”

A barman named Massimo said: “People have been talking about this for the last week. I know dozens who are taking the day off – I’m going to sleep in the camper van with the wife to be on the safe side.”

Bendandi believed movement of plates and therefore earthquakes were the result of the combined movements of the planets, the moon and the sun and perfectly predictable.

In 1923 he predicted a quake would hit central Italy on January 2 the following year – he was wrong by two days.

For his work Bendandi was even given a knighthood by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini – and ordered not to make any more predictions on pain of exile as officials feared he would create immense panic.

However seismologists have been quick to step in and say his theories are without any scientific proof and despite his claims earthquakes are completely unpredictable.

Seismologist Alessandro Amato, who works at the Italy’s National Geophysical and Volcanology Institute, said:”There is absolutely no evidence to say that an earthquake will hit Rome on 11th May and we have told that to the hundreds of people who have called.

“There is a possibility that on the day in question the country as a whole will have an average of 30 or so tremors but that is perfectly normal and the figure we expect.

“It is not scientifically possible to predict the exact date that an earthquake will occur and that’s why we are holding these open days at the Institute to better inform people.”

An estimated 20 million people live at risk from earthquakes in Italy, which is also home to some of the most active volcanoes in Europe.

The Eurasian and African plates meet along a line which runs through North Africa and crosses the Mediterranean near south Italy and Greece. As a result, two main fault lines cut across the Italian peninsula. Memories are still vivid of an earthquake in the central Italian city of L’Aquilam which lies to the north of Rome, in 2009, which killed 300 people. Telegraph