Italian PM faces new Afghan test

Source: Reuters

Italian PM faces new Afghan test
Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:42 PM EDT

By Stephen Brown

ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Romano Prodi faces a new foreign
policy test on Tuesday when the Senate votes on keeping
peacekeepers in Afghanistan, where Italy angered allies last week
by swapping five Taliban for a kidnapped reporter.

Negotiating with the increasingly violent Taliban earned a reprimand
from Italy's U.S. and British NATO partners and some domestic foes,
who may now withdraw support for the mission.

Prodi, who was forced to resign briefly in February after a foreign
policy revolt in the Senate, is still expected to win a vote to fund
keeping 1,900 troops in Afghanistan.

-snip-

Berlusconi told a rally in Milan on Monday night that most of the
opposition would abstain. In the Senate, an abstention is
equivalent to a no vote.

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Read more: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-03-26T184251Z_01_L26424625_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-ITALY-AFGHANISTAN-COL.XML

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 20:07 GMT 21:07 UK

Prodi backed in key Afghan vote

Romano Prodi's Italian government has won a vote in the Senate
to keep Italy's troops in Afghanistan.

The vote gives final approval to a measure that provides funding
for all Italian missions abroad.

The government saw off a rebellion from some left-wing members
of the ruling coalition, to repeat the victory it had already
achieved in the lower house.

Commentators had said that a defeat in the vote could have led
to the collapse of Mr Prodi's government.

In the event it was carried by 180 votes to two, with 132
abstentions, which in the Senate count as "No" votes.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6501399.stm