Rome - A row has broken out in Italy Tuesday over the government's decision to send the air force's aerobatics team to Libya to join 40th anniversary celebrations marking the military coup that brought Moamer Gaddafi to power.

Centre-left opposition leaders urged President Giorgio Napolitano, as commander-in-chief of the Italian armed forces, to block the planned display by the Frecce Tricolori team.

The appeal follows earlier calls for Premier Silvio Berlusconi to scrap a planned visit to Libya on Sunday for the first anniversary of an accord that compensated Libya for Italy's colonial rule and introduced joint measures to curb illegal migrants across the Mediterranean.

Critics have pointed out how the visit would come just over a week after Tripoli staged a welcome for freed convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi - a move much criticised by London and Washington.

But Italian government officials have said Berlusconi's August 29 visit would go ahead, including a meeting with Gaddafi, whose decision to embrace al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people, was widely condemned.

The Frecce Tricolori are scheduled to fly over Tripoli as part of celebrations of the September 1, 1969, Libyan revolution, the Italian Defence Ministry has said.

Members of the opposition centre-left Radical Party have questioned the use of Italian taxpayers' money to fund the air exhibition "in honour of a dictator," and have demanded that the conservative government brief parliament on the costs involved.

But Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said the Libyan display would cost no more than a flypast in Italy, and that Tripoli's invitation to the Frecce Tricolori represents an important signal that the North African country has shed its former anti-Italian policies in favour of applauding "Italian excellence." (dpa)