Kenny travels to Rome for Monti meeting

The Taoiseach travels to Rome today to meet the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.

This will be the first bilateral meeting between the two leaders since Prime Minister Monti took office 100 days ago.

The eurozone debt crisis is likely to dominate the discussions.

Mr Monti has emphasised in recent weeks the need for the EU to move on from the focus on austerity measures to agreement on policies that will promote economic growth in the years ahead.

The meeting comes ahead of a European summit of leaders which is due to take place in Brussels next week.