Russian president to visit Italy next week
Putin arrives in the Italian capital next Tuesday and will first meet with President Giorgio Napolitano, according to diplomatic sources.
On Tuesday evening the Russian leader will be the guest of Italian Premier Romano Prodi for a working dinner at the premier's office.
Prodi and Putin travel to Bari on Wednesday for the official fourth Italo-Russian summit.
On the agenda for the talks there will be the international situation, energy matters, relations between Russia and the European Union and bilateral issues in general.
Diplomatic sources said discussions on the international scene will focus on the situations in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq and see the two leaders seeking common solutions.
The Italian delegation to the Bari summit will include Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, Defense Minister Arturo Parisi, Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, Family Policy Minister Rosy Bindi and Research Minister Fabio Mussi.
Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and Justice Minister Vladimir Ustinov.
On the morning before the summit, D'Alema will open in Rome a session of the Forum for Italo-Russian Dialogue which has been promoted by the Rome and Moscow governments in collaboration with ISPI, Italy's institute for international political studies.
The forum will be attended by representatives from the Italian and Russian industrial, political and institutional worlds including Italian Foreign Trade Minister Emma Bonino, Industry Minister Pierluigi Bersani and Russian Industry and Energy Minister Khristenko.