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Italy Plans September Withdrawal of Iraq Troops

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announces he will start withdrawing the country's 3,000 troops from Iraq starting in September. Many read the move as a sign that his loyalty to the Bush administration is starting to erode his domestic political strength. Italy's announcement follows the decision of three other countries to pull troops out.

Copyright 2005 NPR

Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.