Milan, Italy - The death in Italy of a 19-year-old Burkina Faso-born man after he was allegedly bludgeoned for stealing biscuits has provoked outrage with some blaming the conservative government for contributing to a "climate of hate" in the country.

A 51-year-old owner of a bar in Milan and his 31-year-old son were arrested Sunday for attacking Abdul Salam Guiebre, who news reports said held Italian citizenship acquired after coming to the country as a child.

Witnesses said that on Saturday night they saw the two men jump into a van and chase Guiebre and a group of other African immigrants down a street near Milan's central railway station.

Fausto Cristofoli and his son Daniele cornered Guiebre and accusing him of stealing from their bar began beating him with a metal rod while shouting racist insults, the witnesses said.

Guiebre was taken to hospital where he died several hours later, Milan daily Corriere della Sera said on Monday.

Bar-owner Fausto Cristofoli has in the past spent 10 years in jail for armed robbery, according to the newspaper.

"The murder of a young man bludgeoned to death is fruit of a climate of hate," the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Walter Veltroni said.

Veltroni referred to the anti-immigration rhetoric by the Northern League, a key ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

But Milan's Deputy Mayor Riccardo De Corato, of Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom party, while branding the attack an "barbaric crime" rejected allegations that the city was racist.

Veltroni comments were also rejected by the Northern League which through one of its senior members, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, has been instrumental in introducing harsher penalties for immigrants who commit crimes and has led a campaign to dismantle illegal camps occupied by ethnic Roma.

"We feel sorry for this poor young man who was killed by two mad criminals," said Northern League parliamentarian, Ettore Pirovano, but added: "to accuse the League of being racist and xenophobic and of almost being responsible, is revolting."

In its reaction to the attack, the Roman Catholic charity group, Community of St Egidius, compared the Milan attack to the weekend assualt of a Romanian man in Rome, denouncing what it said was "the ease with which scapegoats are identified" in minorities. (dpa)