Prodi affirms Italy's focus on EU integration

Italian premier Romano Prodi made his first European tour this week, sending his partners what he hopes would be considered a reassuring message – that the Silvio Berlusconi era is over.

He stopped in Vienna, Paris and Berlin, saying he was intent on fostering EU integration, cleaning up Italy’s shaky finances and ending the kind of back-slapping personal diplomacy favoured by his flamboyant predecessor.

Tomorrow, he joins fellow European leaders for an EU summit in Brussels.

The tour comes at a critical time for the new centre-left government, which a month after taking office has announced the forthcoming pull-out of Italian troops from Iraq and is reviewing the degree of its commitment in Afghanistan.

It also comes on the eve of the first visit by foreign minister Massimo D’Alema to Washington.

“This is a new phase in Italian politics: One where Europe and the relations with European countries is the absolute priority,” Prodi said, speaking alongside Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.

“This is the message I want to give to my European colleagues.”