The crisis at Italian agri-food giant Parmalat, described by Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti as "Europe's Enron", sent shockwaves through Italian industry

"The situation is very serious," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said, announcing his government would intervene to try to salvage the agri-food giant "to restore confidence and the country's reputation". The scandal, sparked by the discovery of a four billion-euro "hole" in its accounts, follows the recent spectacular collapse of another high-profile Italian food company, Cirio. "The government will intervene above all to save the company and its industrial sector and to save the jobs...." Berlusconi told an end-of-year press conference in Rome. He said Tremonti, whose "Enron" remark was reportedly made at a cabinet meeting which discussed the crisis on Friday, would submit rescue proposals to a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Parmalat, Italy's leading agri-food company with a workforce of more than 36,000 in 30 countries, was already struggling to cover estimated debts of 6.0 billion euros when the hole was discovered. The Bank of America (BoA) disowned the authenticity of a document certifying that Parmalat's Cayman unit Bonlat Financing Corporation had 3.950 billion euros (4.9 billion dollars) of liquidity at December 31, 2002. Analysts said Friday Parmalat was close to declaring bankruptcy after the discovery of the massive hole in the company's accounts. affected" by the crisis, Berlusconi said.