Garbage from Naples is being carted north to Germany for incineration, as part of a one-off effort to ease the weeks old waste build-up in the Italian city.

But the deal, struck last year, to transport 30,000 tonnes of pressed Neapolitan garbage to an incinerator in Bremerhaven, has met with critics, who charge that EU nations should be able to process their own waste.

Since September 2007, about 8000 tons of rotting food, tossed containers and other refuse has been burned in the northern port city in the state of Bremen, said Michael Ortmanns, a spokesman for Bremen's minister for environment, traffic, building and Europe.