Italy:Italy's centre-left government yesterday rejected ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's accusations that it had adopted an anti-Washington foreign policy line and favoured relations with Arabs and Iran over US ally Israel.
Foreign minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters in Doha on a Middle East tour that strengthening dialogue with Arabs and Iran did not mean Italy was no friend of the United States or Israel.
"We are not anti-American and we are friends of the Arab countries. As always. Italy has been a friend of Arab countries and a friend of Israel," he said.
"This campaign about us being anti-American has no basis in fact. It's an ideological campaign meant to divide the country," said Mr D'Alema, a leftist whose appointment last year had stoked speculation that the government of Romano Prodi would be less US-friendly than Mr Berlusconi's.
Since defeating Mr Berlusconi in last April's elections, the Prodi government has dropped the centre-right leader's almost exclusive focus on relations with Washington and Israel in favour of a stronger participation in the EU.
Mr Prodi has accelerated the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq - a decision taken while Mr Berlusconi was in power.
He spearheaded European efforts for a new peace force in Lebanon and built up a dialogue with Iran's anti-Israeli and anti-US president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Mr Prodi has met.
But Mr Prodi says his aim is to take advantage of Italy's lack of colonial baggage in the Middle East to help peace efforts. At the same time, Mr D'Alema has forged unexpectedly cordial relations with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
Mr Berlusconi told Italian television that current policy "seeks to exclude American influence, has interlocutors like Ahmadinejad's Iran" and "winks to Hizbullah while not sparing criticism of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East".
He accused Mr Prodi of "serving the axis between Paris and Madrid in support of French ambitions for a Euro-Arabic alliance".
"America has put us on the list of untrustworthy nations, a decision which will have repercussions on Italy's foreign trade," said the Italian conservative opposition leader.
- (Reuters)