(ANSA) - Rome, October 4 - Premier Giuseppe Conte announced a plan to help the homeless and stressed that his government is committed to protecting the environment as he visited Assisi on Friday for St Francis's Day. "Development that respects creation, that respects the environment, that is truly human, is needed" Conte said. "I feel this commitment as a citizen, as a father.

"Protecting the environment is a priority for our government". The premier says the government was working with pensions and social-security agency INPS to make sure homeless people get the help to lift themselves out of poverty that they are entitled to.

"Poverty should not come knocking on the government's door, it is the institutions that must see citizens' needs and fight absolute poverty on the field.

"Last year we approved the citizenship wage (basic income). "We are going to do more. "Together with INPS we have prepared a project.

"We'll go to six cities with 50,000 homeless people who do not benefit from the citizenship wage, even though they have the right.

"They are invisible people. We want to make them visible".

