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PALESTINIAN LEADER MEETS WITH POPE AND PRIME MINISTER

The president of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat visited 
Rome yesterday and today. This morning, the Palestinian leader gave a 
telephone interview for "Uno Mattina," aired by Italian state broadcast Rai 
Uno. Mr. Arafat appealed to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to resume the 
peace process, saying "Let us return to the negotiating table and recover the 
agreements already reached, in a move to save this process, without 
conditions and without military pressure." Later in the morning, the 
Palestinian president visited the Vatican and was received by Pope John Paul 
II. He also had a meeting with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and 
foreign minister Renato Ruggiero.
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ITALIAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS PALESTINIAN STATE

Italian president Carlo Azegli Ciampi made a statement in favor of a 
Palestinian state during an official visit to Tunisia. The president spoke 
during a dinner hosted by Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He 
stated that "the time is ripe for a Palestinian state, in an accord that 
guarantees security for Israel1s borders and for the peoples living in the 
region to co-exist peacefully." He added that the Middle East crisis "is not 
a religious war, but an interminable, serious regional conflict, causing 
repeated bloodshed, but, in the end, not unresolvable." 
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PRIME MINISTER ACCUSES EUROPEAN PRESS OF LOBBYING AGAINST ITALY

In an interview published in Italian daily Il Foglio, premier Silvio 
Berlusconi broke the press silence he imposed on himself, defending his 
position and that of European Commission president Romano Prodi. "In a highly 
cynical campaign a political and journalistic lobby aims at making Italy the 
scapegoat of everything that is not working in Europe, " the prime minister 
stated, reacting to articles recently published in the German press that 
attacked Italy's position on pulling out of the European Airbus project. He 
stated that "certain unseemly fights picked by the European press recently 
show that something is amiss. When the judgment of a politician's job becomes 
a vulgar personal attack, the time has come to set limits."
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