ROME, May 22 (UPI) -- Italian troops in Afghanistan are unlikely to take on combat responsibilities, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Tuesday.
D'Alema was in Pakistan after a visit with the Italian peacekeeping force in Kabul, the news agency ANSA reported. He was responding to U.S. President George Bush's call for NATO countries to take more responsibility for fighting the Taliban.
"Our armed forces act on the basis of decisions made by the Italian Parliament, not by other people," he said. "We respond to Parliament and no one else."
D'Alema also criticized the campaign against the Taliban, primarily conducted by U.S. and British troops.
"The loss of civilian lives is unacceptable and at the same time not very useful if we want to capture the hearts and minds of the population," D'Alema said.
A six-month extension of the Italian effort in Afghanistan was approved in March. But some members of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left coalition favor immediate withdrawal.
