KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go live to the State Department, Secretary of State Colin Powell with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. Let's listen in.</s>COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: ... look forward to having a very strong and productive relationship with the minister. Over the past hour and a half we have discussed a number of issues, the strong state of U.S.-Italian relations, and that gave me the opportunity to thank him for all the support that Italy has been providing to the United States on the global war on terrorism, and especially to thank him for the contribution that Italy is making to our efforts in Afghanistan not only helping to train a new judiciary, but a thousand-man Alpine unit is en route to Afghanistan to work with our forces. As you might expect, we also discussed the other issues of the day. We talked about Iraq, North Korea, touched on Iran, touched on recent developments within Europe, the expansion of NATO and the expansion of the European Union, and a variety of other bilateral issues. The minister knows of the strong affection that exists in the United States for almost all things, Italy, and especially driven by the very strong Italian-American community that we have here in the United States. And so, Franco, it's a great pleasure to welcome you here, and I look forward to hosting you many more times in the future.</s>FRANCO FRATTINI, ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: (speaking in Italian)</s>PHILLIPS: I wish I could speak Italian and translate this for you, but it sounds all very positive. This is Franco Frattini. He is the Italian foreign minister. He met today with Secretary of State Colin Powell there at the State Department. Of course, they were talking about U.S.-Italian relations, and support for the global war on terrorism. Powell making the point that Italy has been a tremendous help with the mission in Afghanistan. They also talked about other bilateral issues, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
Colin Powell Welcomes Italian Foreign Minister