Berlin  - Italian Mafia expert Laura Garavini welcomed Monday moves by Germany to crack down on money laundering.

"It's not a good day for the Mafia," said Garavini, a German-based member of the anti-Mafia Commission in the Italian parliament.

She was commenting on a decision by the German parliament to adopt measures that would make it easier to seize the assets of criminals convicted in Italy or other EU member-states.

Proceeds from organized crime were up to now virtually untouchable in Germany, said Garavini, who lives in Berlin but was elected to parliament in Rome as a representative of Italians living abroad.

This was mainly because of complex procedural measures which allowed convicted criminals time to dispose of protection money or funds from drug deals and contract killings, said German legislator Klaus Uwe Benneter.

He said cooperation between Germany and Italy had improved a lot since six Italians were killed by the Italian crime syndicate 'Ndrangheta outside a restaurant in the German city of Duisburg in August 2007.

Benneter said hundreds of millions of euros were illegally transferred to Germany from crimes abroad, but only a fraction was ever recovered.

He estimated that 700 billion euros (975 billion dollars) in illegal money was in circulation around the world. Large sums from organized crime were laundered abroad before being lodged as "legal" deposits with financial institutes in Germany.(dpa)