geonames-dump to sqlite python error 'dict_items' object does not support indexing

i'm getting this error when running the python code from below

'dict_items' object does not support indexing

http://ift.tt/1BmLs1q

what the code does is get files from geonames and put the results in a sqlite database.

it runs fine unntil creating the tables

def create_tables(cur):
    '''
    Create empty tables which will be populated later.
    '''
    for table_name in TABLE_MAPPINGS.values():
        cur.execute('DROP TABLE IF EXISTS %s' % table_name)
        table_fields = [ "%s %s" % table_field.listitems()[0] for table_field in TABLE_FIELDS ]
        cur.execute('CREATE TABLE %s (%s)' % (table_name, ','.join(table_fields)))

error specifics:

  line 111, in <listcomp>
    table_fields = [ "%s %s" % table_field.items()[0] for table_field in TABLE_FIELDS ]
TypeError: 'dict_items' object does not support indexing" 

any ideas? thx!