Italy aims to bolster its ties with Asian countries, the Italian Foreign Ministry said on Monday ahead of an important trip to China by Italian Premier Romano Prodi.

Italian Foreign Undersecretary Ganni Vernetti told reporters that "Italy wants to invest a lot in its relations with Asian countries."

"Asia is one of Italy's foreign policy priorities," Vernetti added.

The undersecretary noted that Prodi's visit to China this week would be followed by a trip to India in February and Japan in April.

Meanwhile, two major Indian delegations are due to visit Italy in November.

At a press conference last week about his six-day China trip, Prodi said that he wanted Italy to become "the door to the East."

He stressed the need to build up Italy's economic relations with China, underscoring that the Asian giant represented a great opportunity for Italian businesses.

Prodi arrives in China on Wednesday accompanied by four ministers, one junior minister and three undersecretaries plus representatives of 12 of Italy's 20 regions and top members of the powerful industrial employers' federation Confindustria, the Italian Foreign Trade Institute (ICE) and the Italian Banking Association (ABI).

Some 500 Italian businessmen will be included in the Confindustria, ICE and ABI delegations, making the overall group the largest Italian one to ever visit China.

Prodi will visit four cities that are key to China's economic engine: Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin.

His trip will end in the Chinese capital of Beijing, where the center-left leader will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

The development of the northeast port city of Tianjin near Beijing is expected to figure high on the agenda in the talks between Prodi and Wen.

A total of 1,428 Italian companies are currently present in China and more than 80 percent of them are large-sized ones.

Meanwhile, Italian exports to China jumped 18.6 percent in the past 12 months with textiles and machinery leading the upwards trend.

One of Prodi's most important stops will be in Guangzhou, where he and Foreign Trade Minister Emma Bonino will open the city's international fair of small to medium-sized firms.

Source: Xinhua