Italy to add fingerprints to ID cards

ROME, July 16 (UPI) -- Italian lawmakers Wednesday approved a measure that would include fingerprints on national identification cards starting in 2010.

The provision was passed amid a continuing debate over government plans to fingerprint Roma Gypsies living in Italy as part of a census.

Many Gypsies live on the road, frequently moving among camps. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he wants the census to be carried out in order to get more Roma children enrolled in school.

But the idea of mandatory fingerprinting of a specific ethnic group rankled the opposition Democratic Party, the ANSA news service said.

Wednesday's vote was termed a victory for equal rights by Democratic leaders who called on the government to drop the Roma fingerprinting program altogether.