PARIS, May 5 (UPI) -- France and Italy Wednesday concluded a $14.4 billion high-speed rail deal during the Paris visit of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The project will extend France's high-speed TGV train system from the French town of Lyon to the Italian town of Turin.
The signing ceremony was attended by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Berlusconi, whose visit is also aimed at smoothing ruffled ties between the two countries over the Iraq war.
Berlusconi, among Europe's staunchest defenders of the war, Wednesday repeated his vow to keep Italian soldiers in Iraq, contrary to the Spanish government, which is pulling out its soldiers.
Berlusconi also met with French President Jacques Chirac, who headed an anti-Iraq war coalition last year, and whose relations with the Italian leader have not been the best.
Their meeting coincides with a new poll showing another dip in Chirac's popularity, two years after he was reelected by a landslide.
According to the poll published by Le Figaro newspaper, 57 percent of French declared themselves dissatisfied by Chirac's center-right government.
