The cities of Padua and Verona have boosted the fines as a way to discourage prostitution and criminal rackets that force women to sell their bodies, ANSA, the Italian news agency, reported Friday.

By government decree, Italian cities are allowed to increase penalties for prostitution.

In Padua and Verona, the fines went from about $77 to more than $778 to provide a "much stronger" deterrent, said Verona Mayor Flavio Tosi.

One official said the original $77 fine was too low to serve as an effective deterrent.

''We fined around 500 people under the scheme, but we've always said it wasn't effective because the sum was too low. Now with a sanction 10 times higher we hope to see street prostitution reduced to zero,'' said Padua's city policing assessor Marco Carrai.