Italy promised yesterday to provide more funds to develop its cultural heritage, in co-operation with the World Bank.
The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, told a four-day international conference which opened in Florence that Rome's decision "is an answer to a precise strategy and is to be seen as an example, a laboratory and an incentive for other countries".
Mr Dini said Italy had contributed about 2.5 million euros ($2.7 million) to a working group set up by the Washington-based World Bank to highlight influences between culture and economic development.
"The interdependence between culture and development is a fact," said Mr Dini. "In today's world with its rapid changes, culture is at the centre of (economic) growth and communication."
However, "one of the evil spirits that haunted Europe was a tendency to mistake its own culture for world culture; if Europe wants to set an example for the modern world, it must respect others".