Rome:
Inter Milan moved up to third in the Serie A table after labouring to a 3-0 victory at rock bottom Bari.
Following league leaders AC Milan's 0-0 draw with Lazio on Tuesday, Inter on Thursday, closed the gap to their bitter city rivals to seven points and with a game in hand.
Although the final score appeared comfortable it did not tell the story of a game that for 70 minutes seemed destined to finish in a sterile goalless stalemate.
But 20 minutes from time Morocco midfielder Houssine Kharja struck his first goal for the champions in his first start for the club.
Fellow transfer deadline day signing Giampaolo Pazzini then took his tally for the nerazzurri to three goals in two games with the first of two added time strikes before Wesley Sneijder on his injury comeback added the third.
The best chance of the first half came on 10 minutes when Bari's Sergio Almiron set his sights from a free-kick just outside the box but Julio Cesar made a diving one-handed save.
Inter rarely threatened with a pair of half chances from right-back Maicon the closest they came to creating a breakthrough.
At the start of the second half Cameroon captain Samuel Eto'o worked his way into the Bari box but his shot was deflected behind.
Dutch playmaker Sneijder came on early in the second period to make his injury comeback after almost two months on the sidelines but his rustiness showed as he blazed over when well-placed.
The opening goal came 20 minutes from time after some uncharacteristically slick play in an otherwise stale match.
Kharja slipped the ball inside to Eto'o and continued his run, taking the forward's reverse pass and then finishing crisply left-footed across Jean-Francois Gillet in the Bari goal.
That at least sparked the Serie A basement sitters into life and Alessandro Gazzi burst forward to hit a dipping ball on the volley but Cesar got both hands behind it to parry.
Gazzi was presented with a great chance five minutes from time but on the turn he failed to get a true contact and the ball trickled harmlessly into Cesar's arms.
As Bari pushed up late on to try to rescue something from the game, Pazzini escaped on the break and finished clinically inside Gillet's far post before Sneijder volleyed home with the last kick of the match.