Italy's hard-line interior minister has called for "little ethnic shops" - convenience stores run mostly by Asian immigrants - to have to close by 9pm because they are a focus for drug dealers and "hell raisers".

Matteo Salvini, who is also the head of the anti-immigrant League party, said he would add an amendment to a security bill going through parliament.

"(There will be an amendment) for the closure by 21:00 of little ethnic shops, which have become a meeting place for drug deals and people who raise hell," Mr Salvini, wrote on Facebook.

He denied that the move was racist or specifically targeted at migrant-run businesses. Instead it was to "limit" supposed anti-social behaviour in and around the grocery shops.

In recent years, hundreds of convenience stores, or "mini-markets" as they are known to Italians, have opened up in cities like Rome, Milan, Florence and Turin. Many are run by Bangladeshi immigrants.

But Mr Salvini's proposal attracted strong condemnation at home and abroad.