ROME, Sept. 23 -- As Rome prepares to lay down the red carpet for its first ever film festival, organizers are keen to allay fears that the event poses a threat to Venice's veteran fest.

Organizers stressed this week that the Rome festival had different aims from the Venice Film Festival, which closed earlier this month, Italian News Agency ANSA reported.

"Venice focuses on an excellent selection of films. Instead, here we'll be presenting lots of good movies but above all, we want to give the public an all-round, broad cinema experience including shows, books and music," they said.

The names of the 16 films competing in the Oct. 13-21 Rome competition will be unveiled next Tuesday.

The line-up is already known to include the money-themed Italian drama "A Casa Nostra" (Our Home) by Francesca Comencini and "Gardens in Autumn" by acclaimed Georgian moviemaker Otar Iosseliani.

However, the competition almost risks taking a back seat to the numerous film premieres, screenings, exhibitions, book presentations and other events that have been planned to fill out the festival.

Venice, whose 74-year-old festival is the oldest in the world, has already complained about the timing of the Rome event, which begins little more than a month after the end of the lagoon city's.

Scheduled the way they are now, observers said, the two festivals are bound to vie for stars and premieres.

Relations were openly strained after Venice Director Marco Mueller implied last month that Rome had to make do with movie "rejects."

Mueller told reporters that Rome would screen films that " neither we nor Cannes wanted."

Irate Rome fest organizers called the remark "incredibly offensive" for the capital's film festival debut and the films it was showcasing.

Mueller denied any intent to offend while Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni played down the incident, adding he would "never say a word against Venice."

But the cinema-loving mayor appeared to land some digs of his own by depicting Venice as geared to the film business and his own creation as more viewer-friendly.

While the Venice competition is decided by a star-studded jury, the verdict in Rome will be up to 50 ordinary cinema goers who have been picked from hundreds of applicants. Enditem