Prime Minister Romano Prodi has approved US plans to enlarge one of its military bases in northern Italy, drawing praise from officials in Washington and protests from local residents backed by far-left members of his ruling coalition.


The decision, announced on January 16 by Prodi during his official visit to Romania, was expected to be ratified by the government in a cabinet meeting, Italian officials said.


Speaking to reporters in Bucharest, Prodi said his government “does not oppose” the expansion of Vicenza’s Ederle base, which currently hosts about 2,700 military personnel actively engaged in US campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Under an agreement forged by US President George W Bush with former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, the base is set to be enlarged by 2010 to accommodate a further 1,800 US soldiers currently stationed in Germany.


Prodi had been accused of dragging his feet over the contentious decision, which has revealed splits within his nine-party coalition. His allies range from hard-line communists to liberal democrats.


The premier’s surprise announcement sparked angry scenes in Vicenza, where hundreds of local residents occupied the city’s main railway station amid chants of “Yankee go home.” Far-left party leaders also slammed the decision and threatened to boycott the refinancing of Italy’s peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.


“We are against (the Ederle expansion plan). We need a debate,” said Franco Giordano of the Refounded Communists party, quoted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).


State Department officials in Washington praised Prodi’s decision while US Ambassador Ronaldo Spogli called it “a step forward in Italian-US relations.” Set up in 1951, the Vicenza base hosts the US’s Southern European Task Force (Airborne.) Plans by the US to incorporate the local Dal Molin airfield had already been approved by local authorities.


The Prodi government, which assumed office in May 2006, has sought to distance itself from the steadfast pro-American policies of the Berlusconi government, drawing accusations of anti-Americanism from centre-right opposition leaders.


Berlusconi, a strong supporter of Bush, cited Prodi’s opposition to US air strikes in Somalia and his criticism of the US’s strategy in Iraq as evidence that the government’s foreign policy risked undermining traditionally warm relations between Italy and its transatlantic partner.


Speaking during his latest tour of Arab countries, Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said Italy’s disagreements with the US were “circumscribed” to a few individual episodes.


Prodi’s coalition strongly opposed the US-led war in Iraq and has been distancing itself from Berlusconi’s pro-Bush stance by nurturing closer ties with the Arab world. Prodi narrowly defeated Berlusconi in last April’s general election and enjoys only a wafer-thin majority in parliament’s upper house.


Italy should say yes (to expanding the base). A decision on this issue would no doubt influence relations between Italy and the US,” daily Corriere della Sera quoted Interior Minister Giuliano Amato as saying.


Far left members of Prodi’s nine-party coalition urged Prodi to backtrack from the Bush-Berlusconi accord, saying the base’s expansion would represent a smack in the face of Italy’s pacifist movement.


“The Bush-Berlusconi accord should be ignored,” Corriere quoted Giovanni Russo Spena of the anti-war Refounded Communist party as saying.





Plans by the US to incorporate the local Dal Molin airfield have already been approved by local authorities, in spite of widespread opposition among residents.


Earlier this month, Spogli was greeted by angry protesters when he travelled to Vicenza to discuss the issue with Vicenza’s mayor.


The debate over the Ederle base comes against a backdrop of criticisms from Italian opposition leaders, who have accused the Prodi government of "anti-Americanism".


Prodi’s coalition strongly opposed the US-led war in Iraq and has been distancing itself from Berlusconi’s pro-Bush stance by nurturing closer ties with the Arab world.