Rome: Rome's crazy traffic jams and the lack of parking space have proved a boon for DaimlerChrysler, builders of the mini two-seater Smart car, which is selling better in Italy than in France, where it is built.

Last year, 9,800 new Smart cars were registered in Rome alone, compared with 7,995 in the whole of France.

The new ultra-compact vehicle has killed the myth of the Fiat 500, which in any case is no longer being manufactured, although many Romans still use the 500 even though it costs a lot to maintain or renovate.

The Smart's recipe for success is simple, officials at the city hall, the Capitole, say. The two-seater can be parked in tiny corners in a city where parking is scarce for the 1.9 million cars, which are registered in the capital.

The municipality has pledged to create 30,000 extra parking places in the next two years, but in the meantime, the Smart is making a bomb.

Italy is its first market in Europe, with Rome on top in the country, said Marco Pigliacelli, a salesman for the model.

In Rome, the two-seater meets a basic need to get about in a capital where public transport is deficient.

There are only two metro lines and plans to extend them have constantly been held up by the need to carry out archeological digs of ancient vestiges.

As for the buses, they are 12 years old on average and feeling their age. This means that Romans are more reluctant than most to give up their cars and accept the idea of spending hours in interminable traffic jams, even on a Saturday night when the roads running along the Tiber are blocked by queues of honking cars.

People park inconsiderately on pavements and double parking is tolerated provided the driver leaves a note on his windscreen.

In other countries, the Smart is promoted for its fashionableness but in Italy, the main sales argument is the vehicle's compactness.

The two-seater takes up only the space of two scooters, which however remain the most effective transport in the narrow streets of Rome's ancient centre, which was built for carts and carriages.

In other countries Smart drivers park parallel to the pavement, but the Romans "think laterally" and park perpendicularly to the pavement.

The Smart's success has embarrassed the centre-left municipality in its efforts to limit the number of vehicles in the capital, which suffers from spectacular pollution.