Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini expects US officials to recognise Italy's positive role in Mideast and Afghan/Pakistan questions, the minister said ahead of a series of high-level meetings here.
Heading into talks with George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy for the Middle East, Frattini said Italy expects ''a positive recognition of Italy's role'' both in the Middle East as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In an intense day of meetings, Frattini will confer with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan and members of Congress including John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
''From this series of meetings,'' Frattini said, ''I expect a recognition of the positive role played by Italy in the Middle East as Israel's principal friend in Europe and, at the same time, as a friend of the Palestinians and Arabs''.
''And also as a country that is organising a concrete initiative to give Pakistan and Afghanistan a future prospective,'' he added.
Italy has made several moves to help stabilise the region and is staging a regional conference in Trieste next month, including Iran.
Frattini's agenda in the United States capital began with a meeting with the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, which focused on the current international economic crisis.
After the meeting, Frattini said that Italy as Group of Eight president wanted to help frame a ''global strategy'' on the crisis.
After conferring with Mitchell, Frattini will go to Congress where he will chair a forum on 'Italy in the Global Outlook', organised by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), in collaboration with the Italian American Congressional Delegation.
While at the Congress, Frattini will meet Clinton and Kerry.
Later in the day, Frattini will hold separate talks with Foreign Ministers Rangin Dadfar Spanta of Afghanistan and Makhdoom Memood Queshi of Pakistan, who are accompanying their respective presidents, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari, on their visits to Washington.
Thursday evening will see Frattini as the guest of honor at a dinner organised by the American Jewish Committee.
