Thousands of Italian Uruguayans celebrated Italy's winning the World Cup on Sunday in the most heated party ever seen for a foreign team, local media reported.

Hundreds of vehicles paraded through the streets of Montevideo, filled with passengers chanting "Italy! Italy!" and waving the red, white and green Italian flag. The caravan of cars occupied the main streets of the capital for more than two hours.

Celebrations halted traffic in Plaza Libertad, a central Montevideo square traditionally used for sporting and political pageant.

Uruguay did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup, and citizens have been supporting neighboring Brazil, Spain and Italy, the countries from which most Uruguayan citizens' forbears emigrated.

In the last Italian elections, which allowed non-resident Italians to vote, some 50,000 Uruguayan citizens registered, accounting for nearly two percent of Uruguay's three million residents.