Several thousand Italians, protesting against a planned expansion of an airport and a US military base in Vicenza, have clashed with police forces. A 500-million-dollar expansion plan would make the US military base one of the biggest in Europe.

Riot police fired teargas at protesters who were trying to cross a bridge leading to the US military base at the Dal Molin airport in the northern city of Vicenza. The demonstrators, wearing motorcycle helmets and carrying plexiglass shields, lit firecrackers, threw bottles and rocks towards the riot police but were pushed back. Six policemen were injured.

The demonstrators were later allowed to continue their march, which broke up peacefully.

The protest was launched against the expansion plans that would make the US base one of the biggest in Europe, and more generally against the July 8-10 G8 summit of the world's richest nations, which Italy chairs. The leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia, together with those of major emerging economies, will hold talks in the central Italian city of L'Aquila focusing on the state of the world economy, financial regulations, climate change and trade and development.

Such protests have also been planned at different sites, starting with the one in Vicenza - where locals oppose the doubling of the size of the US base, home to 3,000 soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

The Italian government has approved the construction of a new 6,000 square meter base on the site of the old Dal Molin airport on the city's outskirts. But Vicenza residents have rejected the base expansion in a referendum.