ROME (AFP-EJP)--- Italy is to make Holocaust denial a crime, Justice Minister Clemente Mastella announced Friday, adding that the cabinet would discuss the new bill early next week.

Germany wants to make the denial punishable by law in every member state of the European Union during its current presidency of the EU, German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said this week in the framework of an informal meeting of EU justice and interior ministers in Dresden.

"The legislation will make denying the Holocaust a crime," said Mastella, who added that he was hoping for a cross-party support for the new bill in parliament.

However, he gave no indication of the penalty risked by offenders.

Italy’s main Jewish association, the Union of Jewish Communities, had also called for the law.

Cabinet meeting

Ministers of the centre-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi are next scheduled to meet Monday.

Previous attempts to unify legal standards for Holocaust denial and other xenophobic attacks EU-wide had been blocked by Italy, but Zypries said last week that Prodi’s government which replaced the conservative administration of Silvio Berlusconi after April elections has dropped its opposition.

Among EU members, laws against denying the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in World War II exist in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain.

In a recent high-profile case, controversial British historian David Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria for challenging the Holocaust before being released last month and expelled to Britain.