Anti-G8 demonstrators clash with police in Italy

By Ian Simpson

VICENZA, Italy (Reuters) - Anti-G8 demonstrators clashed briefly with Italian police on Saturday in the first big protest ahead of next week's summit of the world's richest nations.

Police in riot gear fired teargas at protesters to prevent them from crossing a bridge and moving closer to a contested U.S. military base in the northeastern city of Vicenza.

The demonstrators, some of them wearing motorcycle helmets and with their faces covered, threw bottles and lit fireworks as they were pushed back on the bridge.

Several thousand people, most of them marching peacefully, are attending the protest, launched against expansion plans that would make the U.S. base one of the biggest in Europe and more generally against the July 8-10 G8 summit which Italy chairs.

"We are sick of the powerful governing without consulting the people," said Martina Vultaggio, 29, one of the protest organisers.

The leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia, together with those of major emerging economies, will hold talks in the central city of L'Aquila focusing on the state of the world economy, financial regulation, climate change, trade and development.

Anti-capitalist protesters plan a series of demonstrations at different sites against the summit, starting with the one in Vicenza -- where locals oppose the doubling of the size of the U.S. base, home to 3,000 soldiers of the 173 Airborne Brigade.

The Italian government has approved construction of a new 6,000 square metre (64,600 sq ft) base on the site of the old Molin airport on the city's outskirts.