MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina and Italy committed to mend relations

Argentina and Italy agreed Thursday they want to mend a shattered bilateral relationship.
Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa and his Italian counterpart Gianfranco Fini met in Rome.

The ties between the governments of President Néstor Kirchner and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have been severely damaged by Argentina's debt default in late 2001 and the subsequent renegotiation. Italy's 400,000 savers were the largest group of foreign private holders of Argentine bad debt.

A day after he was received by Berlusconi, Bielsa met with his Italian counterpart in Rome. Fini confirmed that he will make an official visit to Argentina in January as part of the efforts to patch up the thorny bilateral links.

Bielsa's press spokesman Oscar Feito quoted Fini as telling Bielsa that the Berlusconi administration was "very sad" about the state of Italo-Argentine relations.

"The history of our countries' relations should be honoured in a much better way," said Fini during the meeting, according to Feito.

The meeting between Bielsa and Fini lasted for two hours, during which the two ministers made "a thorough review" of every aspect of the bilateral relation.

Bielsa and Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna had last week met with 300 representatives of the strong Italian community in Argentina to report on the troubled state of the relationship with the Berlusconi administration.

Foreign Ministry sources speculated that the Berlusconi government's renewed interests in solving the conflict with Argentina might be linked to the fact that Italian citizens living abroad will for the first time be allowed to cast a ballot in next year's general elections next year. Berlusconi is planning to run for re-election.