Italian senate to vote on Iraq troop deployment

Italy’s Senate was expected to back a government measure today and keep the country’s troops in Afghanistan, despite the opposition of some radical leftists in Premier Romano Prodi’s bloc.

The vote in the Senate – planned for this evening – comes amid increasing violence in Afghanistan and controversy over the release of an Italian hostage who had been kidnapped there. The lower house gave its backing to the measure - which provides financial coverage to all missions abroad – earlier this month.