Berlusconi says no Mafia in quake jobs

L'AQUILA, Italy, April 17 (UPI) -- Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has promised that the Mafia would be excluded from reconstruction of towns devastated by last week's earthquake.

He also promised to rebuild the destroyed structures in six months.

''There will be extremely strict controls against the Mafia and against property speculators,'' Berlusconi said in L'Aquila, where the first school for April 6 quake survivors was set up in three tents, ANSA reported.

Earlier, prosecutor Piero Grasso said he was considering a special task force of magistrates and criminal experts to help L'Aquila avoid Mafia infiltration during the rebuilding phase.

Grasso also proposed a list of ''clean'' companies that he felt should be involved.

He cited the massive 1980 earthquake in Irpinia, near Naples, after which much of the reconstruction funds ended up in the hands of the local Camorra Mafia.