ITALY: Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday he was worried about demonstrations against the visit to Rome by US President George Bush, who was due to arrive there late last night.
"The information that we have worries us about the kind of demonstrations that could take place tomorrow," he told a news conference. Anti-war protesters have planned demonstrations against Mr Bush over the Iraq war, and Italian officials have said they feared some could become violent.
Mr Berlusconi appealed to Italians to receive Mr Bush as the "representative of a great country that saved us from Nazism, helped us grow with the Marshall Plan and protected us for 50 years from threats of Soviet missiles".
Mr Berlusconi said he hoped Italy would "show its maturity and understanding of history".
Meanwhile, mortar rounds landed near the Italian embassy in Baghdad yesterday, killing one Iraqi and wounding several others, Iraqi hospital officials and diplomatic sources said. An employee at the embassy said the building itself was not hit and no staff were hurt. "It appears that passers-by were hurt," he said.