Italy has strongly supported Pakistan's case for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union and given assurance to encourage Italian investment in Pakistan.

Addressing a news conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri in Islamabad Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Italy Massimo D'Alema said that Pakistan should consider his country as an ally on the FTA issue.

He referred to the E.U.'s FTA with India and said that there should not be double standards in the region and the E.U. should consider aspiration of Pakistan seriously.

D'Alema said that during his talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai he urged him to focus on national reconciliation and reconstruction to isolate terrorist elements.

He said that he appreciated Pakistan's strong commitment to fight against terrorism.

He said that Italy was organizing the G-8 summit together with Pakistan and Afghanistan to help promote peace and stability in the region.

He said that Italy would also be hosting an international conference on rule of law in Afghanistan in the first week of Julythis year and hoped that a high level delegation from Pakistan would attend it.

In his remarks, Kasuri said that during their talks the two countries agreed to take tangible measures for further strengthening of commercial relations to their mutual benefit. He noted that Pak-Italian trade had crossed a billion dollar mark.

He said that the two sides were keen to further expand relations in all areas especially trade and commerce, defense, higher education, energy, agriculture and information technology.

Soruce:Xinhua