Italy agrees to keep troops in Afghanistan

ROME, June 30 (Reuters) Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government agreed today to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan despite opposition from pacifists in his coalition who have threatened to vote against the mission in parliament.

The cabinet unanimously adopted a decree that extends financing for Italy's overseas military operations, Defence Minister Arturo Parisi said. Italy has some 1,300 troops in Afghanistan under a NATO-led mission.

Without the decree, the financing would have expired at the end of June.

The debate over Italy's troops in Afghanistan has exposed divisions in Prodi's disparate coalition, which ranges from Catholic centrists to communists, less than two months after he assumed power following a razor-thin election victory.

The decree will need parliamentary approval, and eight pacifists in Prodi's centre-left coalition have threatened to vote against the measure in the Senate, where the new prime minister has just a two-seat majority.

''As far as I'm concerned, my vote stays decidedly 'No','' said Gigi Malabarba, a communist senator, cautioning, however, that he would wait to see the text of the measure.

Parisi, who had previously alarmed some allies by refusing to rule out troop increases, said today there would no increase in troops or financial obligations in Afghanistan.

The government is expected to put the Afghanistan mission to a vote in Parliament in mid-July. If the motion fails, it could trigger a government crisis.

''The majority's political credibility is at stake if it can't count on parliamentary support on foreign policy,'' Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said earlier in the week.

Senate defence committee chairman Sergio De Gregorio said he expected opposition by some on the centre left might force the government to rely on centre-right opposition votes.

Afghanistan has tested the opposition, led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, by exposing a split between the centrist UDC party, which has said it will vote with the centre left, and hardliners who will not cooperate with Prodi.

Berlusconi, who aligned his foreign policy closely with Washington's during his five years in power and sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, has suggested he could put forward his own motion to support Italy's presence in Afghanistan.

Italy also has 1,600 troops in Iraq but has said it will withdraw them by the end of the year.

REUTERS HS RS2225