A veteran Italian politician who is battling for a worldwide ban on capital punishment vowed on Wednesday to continue a risky hunger strike despite the Italian government's support for his campaign.
Marco Pannella, a leading member of the tiny Radical party, is on the ninth day of a hunger strike which he began partly in a bid to prevent the execution of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.
Pannella, 76, had asked Premier Romano Prodi to push to get Saddam's death sentence commuted into a life sentence, and back his party's efforts for a United Nations' moratorium on the death penalty.
Since Saddam's execution last Saturday, Pannella has been focusing his attention on the UN angle, obtaining a promise from Prodi to lobby the organisation for an international moratorium on capital punishment.
Prodi told reporters on Wednesday that he had phoned Pannella and asked him to give up his hunger strike.
"I told him in all sincerity, we are doing everything possible, and asked him to please stop this fast because he can't obtain more than what we are already doing. But he insisted on continuing," the centre-left premier said.
Pannella, whose party is one of nine in Prodi's governing coalition, said that he had briefly interrupted his fast to drink some water but would now resume with the support of several other Radical members who were joining his hunger strike.
Doctors have told Pannella that he is putting his life in danger and have urged that he be hospitalised.
The Radical heavyweight and civil rights' campaigner gained some satisfaction on Wednesday when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appeared to backpedal on the death penalty issue.
Ban's spokesman Michele Montas said the new UN chief supported the idea of a moratorium and "believes the UN should work towards that end".
"But UN members are divided on the issue," Montas added.
In comments on Tuesday regarding Saddam's execution, Ban had said that "the issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide" and in conformity with international law.
Italy has in the past been active in campaigning against the death penalty, presenting moratorium proposals at the UN General Assembly in 1994 and 1995.
Last July, the Italian House approved a cross-party motion urging the government to table another moratorium proposal at the UN before the end of 2006.
Although the motion called for a unilateral resolution, the government failed to follow through on the request, citing an inability to agree with its European Union partners.
But Prodi issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Italy intended to use its new Security Council seat to "launch formal procedures... for the UN General Assembly to urgently consider the issue of a global moratorium on the death penalty".
Prodi said Italy would seek the support of 85 UN countries which signed a non-binding declaration in December against capital punishment.
Italy joined the UN Security Council on Monday, taking up one of ten non-permanent seats in the organisation's top decision-making body - a seat it will hold for two years.
Italian head of state Giorgio Napolitano said on Wednesday that the death penalty ban proposal was a "wonderful introduction for Italy on the Security Council".
Prodi, meanwhile, stressed that the backing of other EU states was essential to the success of the initiative.
"Other European countries have responded positively although not yet in a formal or defined way... If we don't have all of Europe behind us, we can't succeed," he said.
The 25-state EU does not permit capital punishment but some members might be reluctant to take on the US, where the death penalty exists, in the campaign for a universal ban.
Germany, which currently holds the EU rotating presidency, has expressed "sympathy" for Italy's move.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry told ANSA this week that Italy's proposal was "in line" with EU human rights' policies and that it would now consult other EU members on the issue.
Italy has asked Germany to include a discussion on the death penalty in an EU summit to be held towards the end of next week.
European Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini told reporters on Wednesday that "the European Commission intends to go ahead with a moratorium on the death penalty".
"But the risky thing would be to put the motion to a vote and then see it rejected by the UN Assembly," said Frattini, who is also European Commission vice-president.
Prodi and other Italian political leaders, as well as the Vatican, strongly condemned the execution of Saddam, who was hanged in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad at dawn on Saturday after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
The premier said at the weekend that Saddam should not have been executed despite his crimes.
"No crime can justify one person killing another. That is a principle which all civilisations and religions share and is the only one on which it is possible to build solid and lasting peace," the former European Commission chief said.
