Italian center-left leader Romano Prodi hoped Wednesday to relaunch an active foreign policy based on "a strong united Europe" and "a firm alliance with the United States".

"After a government short on political substance and long on media activity, Italy shall move on again ... Its foreign role and contribution must be resumed with vision, steadfastness and realism if it wants to do its share and avoid being cut off from the active participants in world affairs," Prodi wrote in a guest column in the French newspaper Le Monde in its Thursday edition that published Wednesday afternoon.

Italy's foreign policy program would be based on three tenets: "A strong united Europe, a firm alliance with the United States, openness to world problems in a concerted multilateral approach, above all to the crises that threaten us all," he wrote.

"I intend to devote my energy and my government's initiatives to work towards eliminating the tensions that arose among the Europeans and with our American allies," he added.

"I firmly believe that global peace and stability require a strong Euro-American strategic partnership, not just ad hoc coalitions," said Prodi, former president of the European Commission.

"This is why we believe that the guiding star of our foreign policy should be multilateralism... if we want to respond to the challenges of poverty and disease, human rights abuse, instability and totalitarianism," he said.

"We'll retreat our troops from Iraq in close consultation above all with the legitimate Baghdad government, and send a civil mission of support to the reconstruction of the Iraqi infrastructures and institutions," he reaffirmed without specifying the date of the withdrawal.

He has said during his electoral campaign that the war in Iraq was "wrong and unjustified" and promised to withdraw the 2,600- strong Italian contingent from Iraq, if he won the general election.

Source: Xinhua