Rome – Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that he might issue separate conclusions on the shooting of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq if American and Italian officials could not agree on who was responsible.
“If the conclusions differ, we will go with different conclusions,” he told reporters here, according to Reuters news agency. He added that Italy “will not sign anything that does not convince us.”
Tensions between Italy and the United States, close friends and allies in Iraq, have been rising over a joint inquiry into the shooting death of the intelligence agent, Nicola Calipari, by American soldiers in Baghdad in March. Amid a furor among politicians and the news media here over reports that the inquiry would clear the American soldiers, Berlusconi visited the American ambassador in Rome, Mel Sembler, twice Tuesday to discuss the report.
The disagreement came at a politically difficult time for Berlusconi, whose ruling coalition fell apart, forcing him to resign last week.
But some of the immediate pressure lifted Thursday, after a final confidence vote in parliament approved a new governing coalition that Berlusconi assembled.
Italy has 3,000 troops in Iraq, a presence that has been unpopular among voters here.
The troops in Iraq are one reason for Berlusconi’s declining popularity and, many experts say, have lowered his chances of winning in the next elections, scheduled for early 2006.