Bush hopes Italy to keep troops in Afghanistan-paper

MILAN, July 11 (Reuters) US President George W Bush said in an interview published today he hoped Italy would keep its troops in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country.

''Certainly. It's a new democracy,'' he said in an interview published in the daily Il Sole 24 Ore, when asked if he hoped Italy would keep its troops in Afghanistan.

''Whoever has to decide whether to stay or go from Afghanistan should look at the consequences of failure and take into account what are the benefits of freedom for the people of Afghanistan,'' he was quoted as saying.

Italy's parliament is to vote this month on a decree by the coalition government to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan and pacifists in the coalition of Prime Minister Romano Prodi have threatened to vote against it.

Italy has some 1,300 troops on a NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

The government has already said it would pull out all of its remaining soldiers in Iraq by the end of the year.

President Bush declined to comment on arrest warrants issued by Italy for 26 Americans, most suspected of being CIA agents, as part of an investigation into the abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasra in Milan in 2003.

Prosecutors believe a CIA-led team considered Nasr a terrorism suspect, snatched him off the street and drove him to a military base in northern Italy. He was then flown to Egypt and, Nasr says, tortured during questioning.

REUTERS SB VA KP1249