Italian European Affairs Minister Mr Rocco Buttiglione has hinted at a compromise to end Italy's standoff with its European Union partners over the creation of an EU-wide arrest warrant.
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"Italy will sign this accord because the document will change," Mr Buttiglione said in an interview with the Rome newspaper
Messaggero
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"I don't know if the signature will be made tomorrow or Friday in Laeken but it will happen," he said.
Belgium, which holds the rotating EU presidency, is pressing Italy to lift its veto on the planned warrant ahead of a summit of EU leaders which gets under way in Laeken, near Brussels, on Friday.
Italy has blocked the planned warrant - seen as the cornerstone of co-ordinated EU efforts to fight terrorism and other major crimes - on the grounds its remit is too extensive.
Rome insists its scope be limited to six of the most serious crimes and exclude fiscal offences of the type that Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi stands accused of in Spain.
The other EU states back the plan.
An EU-wide warrant would mean a suspect wanted on terrorism charges, for example, in one EU state would automatically be wanted in the 14 others and could be arrested and turned over to the country that issued the warrant without extradition proceedings.
AFP