A diplomatic flutter over a letter in which six foreign ambassadors urged Italy to keep its troops in Afghanistan intensified on Tuesday, just as the ruling centre-left coalition looked for unity on the issue.
The letter, published in the La Repubblica daily on Saturday, was signed by the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Romania.
It praised Italy's "fundamental" contribution to the peacekeeping and reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, going on to stress the critical phase that the country now faced.
"We have to stay united. We have to share the responsibility for maintaining security in Afghanistan," the ambassadors said.
The letter came amid public tensions in Premier Romano Prodi's alliance over the future of the Italian contingent in Afghanistan, with left-wing parties wanting a withdrawal.
Prodi has repeated several times that troops will stay for the foreseeable future. He was scheduled to meet allies late on Tuesday to make this point clear.
The letter by the six ambassadors was not welcomed in Rome. Defence Minister Arturo Parisi on Saturday called it "irregular" and Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said curtly that such issues should be discussed in the "proper places".
The State Department in Washington, meanwhile, said the letter was a "praiseworthy initiative" and in line with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's request that US ambassadors work to highlight the importance of the Afghanistan mission.
Corriere della Sera was among the Italian dailies which talked about US-Italy tensions on Tuesday, writing in an editorial: "If this isn't a crisis in Italian-US relations, it certainly looks like one".
But the foreign ministry sought to play down the affair, denying that there were any tensions between Rome and Washington over the continued presence of Italy's 2,000 peacekeepers in Afghanistan.
"Our relations with the US government are excellent," said Foreign Undersecretary Gianni Vernetti, adding that the "episode" should not be given undue importance.
'NO NEED' FOR LETTER.
He added, however, that Italy considered the letter unnecessary. "We are in Afghanistan with NATO and our most important allies. There is no need for some of these countries to address our public opinion directly".
Asked to comment by ANSA, the British Foreign Office in London said that Saturday's letter was "not an unusual act of public diplomacy". The idea was to applaud the Rome government for its commitment in Afghanistan, a spokesman said.
Sources at the British embassy in Rome expressed "surprise" over the Italian government's irritation.
"Basically it was an appeal for unity in a spirit of dialogue and reciprocity," the sources said, stressing that ambassadors had simply expressed the position of their respective governments.
Asked why the letter had not also been signed by German, Spanish and French ambassadors, whose countries also have troops in Afghanistan, the sources declined to reply.
Romanian Premier Calin Popescu said on Tuesday that he had not been informed beforehand that his country's ambassador would have signed such a document.
The government's annoyed reaction to the ambassadors' letter has prompted more criticism from the centre-right opposition, and in particular from former foreign minister Gianfranco Fini.
"There is nothing irregular in the ambassadors' letter on Afghanistan. What is irregular is the foreign minister's response, which betrays the government's obvious political difficulties," Fini said on Tuesday.
When Prodi meets allies on Tuesday, he will be trying to iron out differences not only over Afghanistan but also over the planned expansion of an American military base in the northern city of Vicenza.
This second issue has also split the government, with the same parties that oppose the Afghanistan mission also opposing the expansion.
