In an effort to improve relations with Italys large Muslim community, the minister of the interior, Giuseppe Pisan, is setting up an Islamic consultative committee to find concrete solutions to the problems of integration within the framework of the Italian constitution and laws. In the face of continuing concern over Islamic fundamentalism and the recent debate over the existence of exclusive religious schools for Muslim children in Italy, the minister says that the new committee will be the first step towards the formation of Italian Islam. With one and a half million Muslims now officially resident in Italy, Islam has become the countrys second religion.