ANADOLU/ AFP GETTY Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has ruled out banning the burkini

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Angelino Alfano, Italy’s Interior Minister, rejected following France in banning the controversial swimwear on public beaches saying the measure “has not worked for the best” along the Riviera. The burkini has been outlawed in three Mediterranean towns - Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet and Sisco on the island of Corsica - and Le Touquet on the Atlantic coast is planning to do the same. But fearing the measure could provoke an attack from extremists Muslim women will continue to be free to wear the burkina on public beaches in Italy.

The interior minister has a responsibility to ensure safety and to decide the severity of responses which however must never become provocations that could potentially attract attacks Angelino Alfano

The burkini is designed for Muslims who believe that Islam requires women to conceal everything except the face, hands and feet from all men who are not their husbands. Mr Alfano said: ”The interior minister has a responsibility to ensure safety and to decide the severity of responses which however must never become provocations that could potentially attract attacks.” Instead the Italian authorities are expected to crack down on regulating mosques and training imams across the county to stop potential radicalisation in underground mosques.

He said: “Enough already with these homemade mosques springing up in garages.” Despite Italy disagreeing with the ban, the French government has defended its actions. The mainly conservative mayors who have imposed the ban say the garment, which leaves only the face, hands and feet exposed, defies French laws on secularism. France, which has the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million, introduced a ban on full-face niqab and burqa veils in public in 2010.

AFP GETTY The burkini has been outlawed in three Mediterranean towns

AFP GETTY A swimmer in Tunisia wears the full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim women

The socialist government's minister for women's rights Laurence Rossignol said: "The burkini is not some new line of swimwear, it is the beach version of the burqa and it has the same logic: hide women's bodies in order to better control them. "It is not just the business of those women who wear it, because it is the symbol of a political project that is hostile to diversity and women's emancipation.” Prime Minister Manuel Valls backed the municipal bans but said he saw no need for nationwide legislation.

ANADOLU Angelino Alfano said the ban could provoke terror attacks

In Cannes, ten Muslim women wearing burkinis to the beach have been detained by police with six leaving the beach and four paying a £32 fine for breaching the ban. The burkini debate is particularly sensitive in France in the wake of a series of deadly terror attacks in the last 18 months. Tensions have escalated between communities and on Saturday, a brawl broke out between Muslim families and a group of young Corsicans in Sisco after a tourist took pictures of women bathing in burkini. The mayor banned burkinis on Monday. Villeneuve-Loubet mayor Lionnel Luca, member of the hardline Droite Populaire faction of the conservative Les Republicains party, said the burkini was an ideological provocation.

GETTY France introduced a ban on full-face niqab and burqa veils in public in 2010