Italian gov't rejects Berlusconi's "anti-US" jibe

ROME, Jan 14 (Reuters) Italy's centre-left government rejected today ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's accusations that it had adopted an anti-Washington foreign policy line and favoured relations with Arabs and Iran over US ally Israel.

Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters in Doha on a West Asia tour that strengthening dialogue with Arabs and Iran did not mean Italy was no friend of the United States or Israel.

''We are not anti-American and we are friends of the Arab countries. As always. Italy has been a friend of Arab countries and a friend of Israel,'' he said.

''This campaign about us being anti-American has no basis in fact. It's an ideological campaign meant to divide the country,'' said D'Alema, a leftist whose appointment last year had stoked speculation that the government of Romano Prodi would be less US-friendly than Berlusconi's.

Since defeating Berlusconi in last April's elections, the Prodi government has dropped the centre-right leader's almost exclusive focus on relations with Washington and Israel in favour of a stronger participation in the European Union.

Prodi has accelerated the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq -- a decision taken while Berlusconi was in power.

He spearheaded European efforts for a new peace force in Lebanon and built up a dialogue with Iran's anti-Israeli and anti-US President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Prodi has met.

But Prodi says his aim is to take advantage of Italy's lack of colonial baggage in the West Asia to help peace efforts. At the same time, D'Alema has forged unexpectedly cordial relations with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Berlusconi told Italian television that current policy ''seeks to exclude American influence, has interlocutors like Ahmadinejad's Iran'' and ''winks to Hezbollah while not sparing criticism of Israel, the only true democracy in the West Asia.'' He accused Prodi of ''serving the axis between Paris and Madrid, in support of French ambitions for a euro-Arabic alliance''.

''America has put us on the list of untrustworthy nations, a decision which will have repercussions on Italy's foreign trade,'' said the Italian conservative opposition leader, without explaining what US ''list'' he was referring to.

REUTERS AB RAI2130