BAGHDAD, June 7 (UPI) -- Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema is visiting Iraq to discuss a pull-out of all Italian troops by the end of the year.
His visit comes just two days after an Italian solider, 25-year-old Alessandro Pibiri, was killed and four others wounded in an attack on an Italian military convoy near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.
Italy plans to reduce the number of troops to 1,600 from 2,700 this month, D'Alema last week told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
The new Italian center-left government of Romano Prodi has vowed to alter the Iraq policy of the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi, one of Washington's closest allies in Iraq. Prodi has called the war in Iraq a "grave error."
The timeframe for a complete pull-out looks to be between September and December, Italian media have reported.
