Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino played down reports Friday that authorities in Iraq were warned of an impending attack on the Carabinieri headquarters in Nassiriya, saying such warnings arrived by the dozen.  

"We receive so many reports of possible attacks that it is impossible to know which are true and which are not," the minister said during a visit to the Carabinieri national memorial where he laid a wreath in memory of the 12 Carabinieri killed in Wednesday's car bomb attack in southern Iraq.

"All I can say is what I said after Sept. 11: what we have is not a lack of information but an excess of information."

According to Martino, the risk of attack had appeared to be higher in Afghanistan than in Iraq before Wednesday "and this was the opinion of all sources and Italian and foreign intelligence."     

Looking back at the attack in Nassiriya, Martino observed that "it will take some time to accept what happened and the pain will never go away but just get worse."

He also ruled out the possibility of Italy abandoning Iraq, saying such a move would be incomprehensible and cowardly.

"After all the praise for the performance of our military from our allies and the Iraqi people, I don't think we could abandon Iraq. This would be a vile act which no one would understand," he said.

Martino also ruled out the possibility, for now, of increasing Italy's presence in Iraq, the number of which was established by parliament.

"Parliament authorized the deployment of 3,000 men but we never reached that figure and at most posted 2,700. With the imminent return of the ship San Giusto this number will decline to 2,200," he explained.

Turning his attention back to the attack in Nassiriya, Martino explained that while measures could be adopted to further minimize risk, "we can't close our soldiers in a ghetto because they would not be able to do their job. Our military needs to have contact with the local population, to help and win their confidence."

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2003)