Rome, 17 Oct. (AKI) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the Mafia would be 'erased' from the country, amid reports of several Mafia-linked arrests in Italy on Friday.

"We will succeed in uprooting organised crime in the south...the fight against the Mafia organisations is the first commitment,

"It is time to erase them from the country. All of them, and quickly," said Berlusconi in an interview with Italian daily Il Giornale.

"We must act with determination...it is going to be a hard and relentless battle against the Mafia, the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta.

"We must free the south of crime and with (Italian Interior Minister) Maroni we are putting together an offensive that will soon begin," he said.

On Friday, alleged Camorra Mafia boss Tommaso Prestieri was arrested in the Naples suburb of Secondigliano on Friday. He is accused of illegal weapons possessions and attempted homicide.

Two more suspected Camorra members of the Graziano clan, Antonio Mazzocchi and Adriano Graziano were arrested in the town of Avellino, located 42 kilometres northeast of Naples.

Italian police accuse them of illegal possession of weapons and munitions, among them a Kalashnikov rifle.

Italy's four main criminal organisations are the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra in Naples and the surrounding Campania region, the 'Ndrangheta in the southern region of Calabria, and the Sacra Corona Unita in the southern Puglia region.