Rome, 22 October (AKI) - A page in one of the Internet's most popular social networking site, Facebook, calling for the death of Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, changed its name after the Italian government threatened to shut it down.

The Italian government on Thursday urged the California-based company, Facebook Inc. to take down the page, after news reports boosted membership of the 'Let's kill Berlusconi' page to almost 20,000.

Instead, the moderators of the page changed the name to "Berlusconi, now that we have your attention, answer our questions".

The page's membership as of Friday reached almost 24,000.

On Thursday, Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni warned Internet users that anybody involved with the 'Let's kill Berlusconi' page would be reported to Italy's magistrature.

"We have already given the order so that this page is shut down and all those who are involved in it will be reported to the magistrature," threatened Maroni.

He said the danger of such initiatives are that they "run the risk of inciting someone to carry them out."

The office of the public prosecutor in the capital Rome opened an inquiry on Thursday into the death threats and asked Italian police to request Facebook Inc. to block the page and hand over documents to investigate those behind the apparent death threats.

It is unclear whether the government will now take action members of the group after the page changed its name after new groups were created on the popular social networking site, such as 'Let's kill Berlusconi's government'.