Wednesday, April 12, 2006 · Last updated 2:01 p.m. PT
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ROME -- For most Americans, Italy will still be the country of luxury wear, good food and fine wine.
But a new center-left government led by Romano Prodi could bring changes in Italy's relationship with the United States, including a return to the "old Europe" that opposed the war in Iraq and has worries about what it considers Washington's aggressive foreign policy.
Ties with the United States could face their first trial when Prodi is asked to push for the arrest and extradition of 22 purported CIA agents who have been accused by an Italian prosecutor of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Milan as a suspected terrorist.
Italy has been a close ally of the United States since the Cold War, playing a leading role in NATO over protests from the Italian Communist Party, the largest Marxist movement in the West.
The country accepted U.S.-built nuclear missiles in Sicily to counter a Soviet missile buildup in the mid-1980s. During the air war over Kosovo in 1999, NATO planes staged air strikes on Yugoslavia from Aviano air base in Italy.
But conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi raised the relationship to a new level after taking office in 2001, calling President Bush "my friend," breaking with France and Germany by supporting the invasion of Iraq and sending 3,000 soldiers there after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Now, Prodi, a staunch critic of the Iraq war, is set to become Italy's next premier after official results showed his center-left coalition won national elections earlier this week, although Berlusconi has demanded a recount and refused to concede.
Prodi's platform and public statements make clear he intends to focus on closer relations with other European countries and work for a joint European Union foreign policy, saying only the bloc as a whole can counterbalance American power.
Talking Wednesday with foreign journalists, Prodi used the word "Europe" repeatedly when asked how his government would deal with China, Iran and the Balkans.
He said in a major foreign policy address last year that Washington should recognize a "more united Europe is not a challenge or a threat to American power, but a crucial ally in the management of global problems."
As for Iraq, he said there was really no difference between his and Berlusconi's policies, since his rival "had come around" and begun withdrawing troops, with all to be out by the end of the year.
Speaking to supporters in his hometown of Bologna on Wednesday evening, Prodi said his Cabinet would discuss the pullout timetable when it first meets, "because we did not want this war," according to Italian news agencies.
Prodi said this week that he wants a "constructive" relationship with Washington, but also has said that serving as a "junior partner" to the U.S. is not good policy.
"Something is destined to change," said Germano Dottori, an analyst at Rome's Center for Strategic Studies. "The idea is to make the EU a leading player in international politics and this automatically includes a project to reduce American hegemony."
The first test could be over the alleged CIA kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric from a Milan street in 2003, an operation believed to be part of an "extraordinary rendition" strategy to transfer terrorism suspects to third countries where some allegedly are subject to torture. European human rights groups have assailed the practice.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Armando Spataro said he would ask Italy's new government to send an extradition request to the United States for the 22 purported CIA agents after the Justice Ministry under Berlusconi refused to do so.
Spataro said in a statement he was convinced his request "will obtain a different decision from the next justice minister."
Few were surprised at the refusal by Berlusconi's justice minister, Roberto Castelli, who previously called Spataro "anti-American."
Alluding to the acquittal of several terrorism suspects, Castelli said in a statement to the Italian news agency ANSA on Wednesday that he did not want to signal Washington that Italy "frees terrorists acquitted by magistrates while worrying about arresting those hunting terrorists."
Prodi declined to give his position on the case. "Honestly, I didn't put my mind to that," he told the foreign journalists.
But he hinted at the potential for a cooling of relations with Washington.
In response to a question about whether heads of state had called him to congratulate him, Prodi said that he had received congratulatory calls from French President Jacques Chirac and other world leaders, but he had not heard from Bush.
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Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press bureau chief in Rome, has reported on Italian affairs for 24 years.
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