Iraq occupation 'unjustified' - Prodi

Romano Prodi, the European Union chief who also helps lead Italy’s largest opposition coalition, said in a letter published today that he has no doubt that the Italian left would end the nation’s military role in Iraq if elected to power.

His front-page letter in Milan daily Corriere della Sera identified Prodi as EU Commission president, but his words clearly reflected his view in his role as head of the Olive Tree, a grouping of political parties ranging from former Communists to centrists.

Olive Tree is seeking to unseat Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government in the next parliamentary elections, and Prodi is the presumed challenger for the premiership.

Surveys and street marches in the run-up to the Iraq war showed that Italians were highly against the US-led ”preventive” conflict, despite Berlusconi’s staunch backing of US President George W. Bush.

Nearly 3,000 Italian troops and paramilitary police are serving in the occupation force.

Should Olive Tree come to power, “the problem would be to decide whether to continue or interrupt the participation in this war, (and) I have no hesitation in saying that the choice would be ending the intervention,” Prodi wrote.

“Because in its actual form, the occupation is the continuation of an unjustified and illegitimate war and not visibly capable of restoring peace and security to Iraq,” he added.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for spring 2006, but Italy’s parties are jockeying to make a good showing in nationwide elections this June for the European Parliament and mayor’s races to strengthen their hand for the run for government in two years.

Prodi founded the centre-left coalition in 1995, and a year later won the premiership in elections that saw Berlusconi’s forces go down to defeat. He served as premier for two years.

His EU role ends on November 1.