Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi offered US President George W. Bush his country's "inside knowledge" of Iran today to help in talks aimed at persuading Tehran to stop enriching uranium.
"Our offer is based on the fact that we know Iran very well from the inside," Mr Berlusconi said after an hour-long discussion between the two leaders in Rome. "We have some leading companies that are operating there.
"We obviously need to make sure nuclear energy is being used only for peaceful reasons," the 71-year-old Italian premier told a joint news conference with Mr Bush.
The West fears Iran's uranium enrichment activities could be used to build a nuclear bomb. Iran says its programme is only for power generation to meet the needs of its growing economy.
Mr Bush stressed he preferred to resolve the dispute by diplomatic means but repeated "all options are on the table", a refrain he has repeated to convince Tehran that Washington will consider military action to stop it obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Mr Berlusconi repeated Italy's standing offer to join the group negotiating with Iran, formed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Italy is one of Iran's biggest trading partners in Europe.
"I told Silvio I would seriously consider it," Mr Bush told reporters.
"I also made it clear however, that all of us, 'P5 plus 1' or not, need to be sending the same message to the Iranians, which is 'verifiably suspend your enrichment program or else you will face further sanctions and further isolation'," he said.