Arcelor Mittal in new ILVA plan -Di Maio (4)

(ANSA) - Rome, July 23 - Arcelor Mittal are putting together a new plan to save jobs while cleaning up ILVA's huge polluting steel plant at Taranto, Industry and Labour Minister Luigi Di Maio said Monday.
    "It's not a game of football, steel yes, steel no," said Di Maio, who last week said the government would reject the existing plan from the Italo-Indian consortium.
    ILVA, Europe's biggest steel plant, employs 14,000 people while its production has been linked to high local cancer rates.
    Di Maio said "jobs are at stake, and the health of the Tarantini and the hinterland is also at stake".
    The minister, who is leader of he anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), said he was poised to sign a review of the tender process.
    He said he would not take "lectures" from "people who laid on tenders full of faults", referring to former industry minister Carlo Calenda who has criticised Di Maio for allegedly threatening the future of steel in Italy on shaky grounds.
    Di Maio said later that the assessments of Arcelor Mittal's "counter proposals" would be made "in the coming hours".