(ANSA) - Italy boosted anti-terror precautions in the wake of Thursday's London bombings as politicians of all stripes condemned the attacks and voiced their solidarity with Britons.
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told the Senate that security was being heightened in particular around "sensitive British objectives" in Italy, such as embassies, consulates and the headquarters of British businesses. "The level of alarm has been raised, just as in other European countries," he said, adding that the interior ministry's anti-terrorism unit was working round the clock. "The government will leave nothing undone to guarantee national security," he stressed.
Commenting on the attacks from Gleneagles in Scotland, where he was attending the G8 summit, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Italy was exposed to terror attacks like the one that hit London. "We are in the front line when it comes to defending freedom and democracy, with our peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are always going to be subjected to the attention of criminal and terrorist organisations."
"We need careful surveillance," he continued, calling the perpetrators of the London bomb attacks "a gang of fanatical criminals." He said G8 leaders in Gleneagles would likely take new steps in the fight against terrorism. There was an awareness among the eight nations' representatives of a need to "keep spreading democracy", he said.
Back in Rome the leaders of Italy's center-left opposition went to the British embassy to deliver a letter expressing their firm condemnation of the attacks to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We underlined our common commitment in the fight against terrorism and expressed our solidarity for the victims," opposition leader Romano Prodi said. He added that the attacks did not change the centre-left alliance's negative view of the US-led operations in Iraq and its belief that Italians should withdraw.
Prodi praised Blair for not suspending the G8 summit in Scotland and said that it was "important to demonstrate that we will not be intimidated."
Speaking in parliament, Minister Pisanu said information on the London bombings was still sketchy. "An act of international terrorism appears most probable, given the characteristics of the attack, which was clearly complex from an organisational point of view."
Pisanu said the latest information put the death toll in the London bombings at 40, with 90 people seriously injured. The figures were "provisional" and expected to rise, he added.
So far there have been reports of two Italians being slightly injured in the blasts. Pisanu said the foreign ministry's crisis unit was in contact with emergency services in London for news about other Italians. There are believed to be 115,000 Italians resident in London and, according to information from tour operators, 60,000 Italian tourists currently in Britain.
