Ailing Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti will receive a special award for cultural excellence, Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli announced on Tuesday.
The 71-year-old tenor will be the first to receive the recognition which in the future will be given to a leading figure in Italian culture.
"A great Italian, Luciano Pavarotti, is fighting a major battle against a terrible illness with the same determination with which he became a leading world figure through his formidable career," the minister added.
Pavarotti, who had a tumour removed from his pancreas just over a year ago and has had five cycles of chemotherapy since then, is currently convalescing at his home in Modena after spending 18 days at Modena University Hospital last month.
He was taken to hospital August 8 after suffering from a fever. Doctors later determined that the fever had been caused by an infection and not by pneumonia, as initially thought.
Rutelli recalled how the Italian people and Italy's institutions "are close to Pavarotti in his battle for life because of our admiration and respect for him".
'Big Luciano' had been staying at his holiday compound near Pesaro with his wife and their four-year-old daughter Alice before being hospitalised.
He was discharged from hospital on August 25.
