Italian government minister Umberto Bossi has condemned Oscar-winning picture American Beauty for corrupting Italian family values.

Bossi, the controversial leader of Italy's Northern League movement who is currently pushing for a seat on Rai's new board of directors, charged that the movie, about a middle-aged man's obsession with his daughter's friend, is "anti-educational."

"It corrupts our nation's image of the family," he told Italian daily La Stampa, adding that he had changed the channel when the movie was recently broadcast on television.

The Italian Parliament and Senate are believed to have discussed earlier today the names of potential candidates for Rai's new management. Over the last few days, Bossi, who regularly speaks out against immigration, the south of Italy and the corruption of family values, has threatened to pull out of the government coalition if the Northern league is not represented in Rai's board of directors.

In 1994, his withdrawal from the government coalition led to the collapse of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's first government.