Premier Romano Prodi said on Wednesday that Italy would back United Nations' sanctions against Iran, stressing that the international community must do everything possible to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
Speaking at a joint press conference here with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Prodi said that "we are agreed on the need for joint, internationally-coordinated action to avoid Iran becoming a nuclear power".
Referring to the possibility of UN sanctions against Tehran, Prodi noted that Italy would take up a rotating seat on the UN Security Council in January.
"Italy will take an active role in defining sanctions, which should be aimed at making it impossible for Iran to produce and use nuclear materials for warlike purposes," the centre-left premier said.
Iran says it wants to develop nuclear power for peaceful, energy purposes but Western states fear its programme is a cover for producing nuclear weapons.
Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to comply with a UN August deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or for weapons.
The UN is currently weighing a resolution which would impose sanctions on Iran and was drafted by Britain, Germany and France and backed by the United States.
The draft resolution is softer than a previous version in a bid to ensure the support of Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council.
Prodi also joined Olmert in condemning an Iran conference questioning the Holocaust.
"I have expressed to the Israeli prime minister my indignation and total disagreement with the methods and conclusions of the Holocaust meeting in Iran," Prodi said.
Olmert said the two-day conference in Tehran, which ended on Tuesday, was "another expression of the most brutal kind of anti-Semitism".
During talks with Pope Benedict XVI earlier on Wednesday, Olmert asked the pontiff to denounce the forum, whose participants included white supremacists and Holocaust deniers.
In his address to conference delegates on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said Israel would soon be "wiped out".
Ahmadinejad, who has called the killing of six million Jews in World War Two a "myth", has repeatedly said that Israel should be "wiped off the map".
The Vatican, Italy, the US, Germany, Britain and the European Commission have all condemned the Tehran conference.
LEADERS DISCUSS MIDDLE EAST.
Prodi and Olmert also discussed Middle East issues during their meeting on Wednesday.
The Italian premier told reporters that he had pushed for "direct talks" between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"At such a delicate time as this, direct talks are extremely important," he said.
Prodi also sought unsuccessfully to convince Israel to resume negotiations with Syria, which the Israeli government views as an obstacle to peace in the region and which it accuses of backing terrorism.
"The issue of dialogue with Syria found us in disagreement," Prodi said.
In other points on the Middle East, he said that "neither Italy nor Israel want to abandon the road map".
The premier was referring to a 2003 peace plan aimed at reviving talks on long-term peace in the region.
He also said that Israel should maintain its character in the future as a Jewish state.
"The achievement of Middle East peace must come through the renouncing of violence and according to the principle of the recognition of the state of Israel, its recognition as a Jewish state," Prodi said.
He added that European and American involvement were essential for the peace process.
"Without Europe and the US, achieving peace is nothing more than an illusion," he said.
For his part, Olmert said the Israeli government "fully agreed on the need to pursue the peace process with the Palestinians on the basis of the road map".
On leaving the conference, Olmert headed off for talks with Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema.
Olmert's one-day visit to Italy followed on the heels of a trip to Germany, where the Israeli leader met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The tour comes amid Israeli concerns that the European Union might soften tough sanctions against Hamas, the militant movement heading the elected Palestinian government, and show more tolerance for Iran's nuclear programme.
Prodi's centre-left government has taken a strong lead in European Middle East policy. It has also sent troops to Lebanon, providing the biggest peacekeeping contingent for the United Nations force deployed in the south of the country following the July-August conflict with Israel.
