Lazio president Claudio Lotito has insisted that the club's supporters are not racists.

The Aquile's 2-1 victory over Cagliari in Serie A on Saturday was marred by the visiting players complaining that there were 'monkey noises' inside the Stadio Olimpico aimed at forward Víctor Ibarbo.

The match referee stopped the game for a few seconds to discuss the issue with the two teams' captains and then had a warning sent to the Lazio fans over the tannoy system.

"This debate is taking a bad turn because Lazio get seen as a racist club and it is not," Lotito told reporters.

"Unfortunately we cannot control the attitude of individual fans or criminalise an entire group of supporters for the behaviour of a few dozen.

"We have to clarify this and punish only those incidents where the majority of the fans take part in racist behaviour."

Lotito added that behaviour of Lazio fans has changed since he became the club's president in 2004.

"I worked hard to prevent this sort of thing happening and I can say our fanbase has changed a lot since I took over as president," said the 55-year-old.

"However, I cannot put a policeman on every fan when there are 30,000 in the stadium. The club has always distanced itself from certain behaviour with words and above all action, taking a strong hand against many fringe elements of the fanbase.

"We have black players in our squad, it doesn't make sense for our fans to be racist."

Lazio are currently second in Serie A with 39 points from 19 matches.