Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Wednesday that the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq would be completed by the autumn. Speaking at a press conference with top Iraqi officials during a one-day visit to Baghdad, D'Alema said that: "The pullout will be a gradual process which nonetheless will be completed by autumn time".
He said a more detailed timetable for withdrawal would be hammered out by the Italian defence ministry and military authorities."Technically, it's not a simple operation. There are a lot of troops to be withdrawn and lots of equipment dispersed across Iraq," said D'Alema, who is also deputy premier.
He said that Italy would ensure that the pullout did not create "security problems or power vacuums".
Italy's new Premier Romano Prodi, who won the April general election, has said he will withdraw the 2,600 Italian troops currently serving in Iraq by the end of the year, in line with a deadline set by the previous government.
Prodi is resisting calls by some allies in his multi-party coalition for a swifter pullout, a demand which was renewed in the wake of a Monday roadside bomb attack in southern Iraq which left one Italian soldier dead and four others injured. D'Alema stressed at the joint conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari that the troop pullout was contained in the centre left's election programme.
"We made a promise to voters that our soldiers would be brought home," said the former Communist and ex-premier. He underscored that Italy would not be turning its back on Iraq and would boost its role in the country's gradual reconstruction and democratic development.
"We want a real and proper cooperation accord with Iraq," he said.
He cemented the proposal with an invitation to Iraqi officials to come to Rome to sign a bilateral agreement.
D'Alema also said Italy would work to ensure that international organisations did more, adding that the United Nations, NATO and the European Union had to play a bigger part in helping to set the conflict-torn country back on its feet.
The foreign minister held talks on Wednesday morning with both Zebari and Iraq's new Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki.
The Iraqi head of government told reporters after the meeting that Iraq would be "forever grateful to Italy" for
the role it had played in "guaranteeing security in Iraq". D'Alema will head to Washington next week where he will hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Italy did not take part in the 2003 US-led war in Iraq but later sent troops for peacekeeping and reconstruction. Some 2,600 Italian troops are currently serving there as part of a British-led multinational stabilisation force in the southern part of the country.
Last month, Prodi condemned the Iraq war as a "grave error" which had created "new pretexts for terrorist
actions". While affirming his commitment to close ties with Washington, the former European Commission chief indicated that Italy's priorities were now with Europe.
His position contrasted with that of previous premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush and made Italo-American relations a priority. While Berlusconi supported Bush's decision to invade Iraq three years ago and afterwards sent troops, Prodi and the centre left opposed Italian involvement from the start. But Prodi stressed on Tuesday that the latest Italian
casualty in Iraq would have "no repercussions on the timetable for withdrawal".
The attack happened at about 9.35 pm local time on Monday, as five soldiers of the Sassari infantry regiment were aboard one of several Italian vehicles escorting a British convoy on the road to Tallil near Nassiriya, the southern Iraqi town where the Italian contingent is based.
According to an initial reconstruction, the bomb was a rudimentary explosive device activated from a distance as the convoy passed.
Corporal Alessandro Pibiri, 25, died of his injuries soon after the blast. Corporal Luca Daga, 28, is said to be in a critical condition, while three others - Fulvio Concas, Manuele Pilia and Yari Contu - sustained lesser injuries. Corporal Pibiri's death took the number of Italians killed in Iraq since 2003 to 38. The most recent attack was on April 27, when four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing similar to Monday's.
Pibiri's body will be flown back to Italy on Wednesday and he will receive a state funeral on Friday.
Pibiri's grief-stricken father Marco urged the Italian government to immediately pull Italian troops out of Iraq.
