Italy government will pass decree on ILVA future on Friday - source

People walk past damaged cars after a storm in Taranto November 28, 2012. A violent storm hit a troubled ILVA steel plant in southern Italy on Wednesday, injuring around 20 workers, leaving one missing and adding to disruption at the huge site, which is already caught up in a widening pollution scandal.

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian cabinet will pass a decree on Friday to keep Europe's biggest steel plant ILVA open, according to a union source present at a meeting between the government and company management to secure its future.

"Tomorrow we will bring a decree to the cabinet of ministers," Prime Minister Mario Monti said, according to a union source present at the meeting.

"It will be rigorously enforced," Monti added.

Monti and key ministers met with company management on Thursday to hammer out a plan over the future of the plant, threatened with closure and the loss of 20,000 jobs over an alleged environmental disaster.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary)