Russia, Italy foreign ministers to discuss key items of intl agenda.

ROME, December 3 (Itar-Tass) - Italian and Russian foreign ministers
Franco Frattini and Sergei Lavrov will discuss the main items of the
international agenda on Thursday at their meeting in the framework of
enlarged Russian-Italian interstate consultations.
They include new approaches to establishing European security,
Russia-NATO relations, scenarios of development of situations in the
Middle East and in the Central Asian region as well as in the Balkans and
in the Caucasus, reported the press service of the Italian Foreign
Ministry.
The ministry's communique pointed to the importance of the Roman
meeting, continuing a series of events at the international level - from
the OSCE ministerial meeting in Athens to the NATO ministerial meeting -
on the eve of signing a new START agreement by Washington and Moscow.
"All the above deals with the topic of global security, followed by
Italy with great attention in the light of the resumed dialogue between
the West and Russia and the new policy of the US administration. Italy has
always insisted that there is no alternative to partnership relations with
Russia," the document underlines.
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