Ms Mouayche was told children might be scared of her headscarf

"I want the officials at the nursery school realise their mistake and to rectify it," Giuseppe Pisanu said.

School officials in the northern town of Samone banned Fatima Mouayche, 40, saying her veil "might scare children".

She expressed her surprise, saying she had never faced such criticism since she settled in Italy eight years ago.

She argued her headscarf was just an excuse for the school to exclude Muslims.

The Islamic headscarf... is an innocuous symbol of a cultural and religious identity which deserves all our respect Giuseppe Pisanu, Interior Minister

Officials at the nursery deny the decision has anything to do with Islam.

Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party, insisted they reverse the decision.

"The Islamic headscarf - worn in a dignified, unostentatious way - is an innocuous symbol of a cultural and religious identity which deserves all our respect," Mr Pisanu said.

Italy's La Repubblica newspaper said Mr Pisanu praised Ms Mouayche's reaction to the dismissal.

"The civilized composure of this lady shows how unfair the protests and the subsequent decisions preventing her from doing her teacher training are," he was quoted as saying.

Disagreements

Ms Mouayche, a divorced mother of two, had been assigned to the job at the private school after completing a course for nursery teachers.

Italian media reported that opposition Greens supported Mr Pisanu's view, but an official from their coalition partners, the anti-immigration Northern League, disagreed.

"We are duty-bound to defend the right to bring our children up in accordance with our traditions," the party's social policy spokeswoman, Francesca Martini, was quoted in La Repubblica as saying.

"In Italy, unfortunately, we are often helpless spectators as the immigrant population make real efforts to impose their values - and we cannot accept this."