Sicilian Culture: News: Palestinian Leader Meets With Pope & Prime Minister

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Palestinian Leader Meets With Pope & Prime Minister
The president of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat visited Rome yesterday and today. This morning, the Palestinian leader gave a telephone interview for "Uno Mattina," aired by Italian state broadcast Rai Uno. Mr. Arafat appealed to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to resume the peace process, saying "Let us return to the negotiating table and recover the agreements already reached, in a move to save this process, without conditions and without military pressure." Later in the morning, the Palestinian president visited the Vatican and was received by Pope John Paul II. He also had a meeting with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and foreign minister Renato Ruggiero.
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ITALIAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS PALESTINIAN STATE
Italian president Carlo Azegli Ciampi made a statement in favor of a Palestinian state during an official visit to Tunisia. The president spoke during a dinner hosted by Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He stated that "the time is ripe for a Palestinian state, in an accord that guarantees security for Israel1s borders and for the peoples living in the region to co-exist peacefully." He added that the Middle East crisis "is not a religious war, but an interminable, serious regional conflict, causing repeated bloodshed, but, in the end, not unresolvable."
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PRIME MINISTER ACCUSES EUROPEAN PRESS OF LOBBYING AGAINST ITALY
In an interview published in Italian daily Il Foglio, premier Silvio Berlusconi broke the press silence he imposed on himself, defending his position and that of European Commission president Romano Prodi. "In a highly cynical campaign a political and journalistic lobby aims at making Italy the scapegoat of everything that is not working in Europe, " the prime minister stated, reacting to articles recently published in the German press that attacked Italy's position on pulling out of the European Airbus project. He stated that "certain unseemly fights picked by the European press recently show that something is amiss. When the judgment of a politician's job becomes a vulgar personal attack, the time has come to set limits."

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