Italy should cut its budget deficit with measures that are more permanent than the one-off steps so far taken, the European Commission said on Wednesday after starting its early warning procedures against Rome. The Commission, which polices the EU's budget rules, said Italy should take appropriate measures to avoid the recurrence of an excessive deficit by ensuring an improvement in the cylcically adjusted budget balance by at least 0.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product a year. Italy had to replace "one-off measures by measures of a more permanent nature", the Commission added. On Germany, the Commission said Berlin should continue its budget consolidation measures after 2005.///