Mr Biagi added that the cost of scrapping the project could also be wrong.

BBC: Scrapping Edinburgh trams would cost ?750m

In the aftermath of Mr Biagi's murder, Mr Berlusconi urged the trade unions to call it off.

ECONOMIST: Italy

In 2002, Marco Biagi, the economic adviser who drew up the original proposal, was shot dead by the Red Brigades.

NEWYORKER: Booted

Strangely enough, Mr Biagi's murder may help the government to enforce change.

ECONOMIST: Italy

On labour markets, however, the Prodi platform proposes partly to reverse the Biagi law by making it less attractive to employ people on temporary contracts.

ECONOMIST: Italy's election

Marco Biagi, the SNP MSP for Edinburgh Central, said he had serious doubts about the figures for both scrapping the scheme and for completing it.

BBC: Scrapping Edinburgh trams would cost ?750m

This week saw the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Marco Biagi, the expert behind a previous attempt to make it easier for employers to sack surplus workers.

ECONOMIST: Italy��s reforms

The Biagi law, named after Marco Biagi, a labour-market adviser who was assassinated for his pains, exempted many new jobs from rules that required most work to be full-time and permanent.

ECONOMIST: So easy to pinpoint what is wrong, so hard to put it right

In 2003, with the so-called Biagi law, Berlusconi introduced new kinds of part-time and short-term contracts for those coming into the job market while preserving the security and the privileges of those already employed.

NEWYORKER: Booted