VZCZCXRO2606
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DE RUEHRO #1284 2971627
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P 231627Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1037
INFO RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0436
RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN PRIORITY 9602
RUEHFL/AMCONSUL FLORENCE PRIORITY 3243
RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES PRIORITY 3397
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 2974
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

UNCLAS ROME 001284 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
SCA/A FOR NISHA SINGH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV IT AF
SUBJECT: ITALY SUPPORTS AFGHAN ELECTIONS, PLANS G8 
MINISTERIAL OUTREACH SESSION ON AFGHANISTAN 
 
REF: A. STATE 108855 
     ¶B. ROME 1251 
     ¶C. ROME 1219 
 
¶1. Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
2.(SBU) Poloff delivered Ref A demarche requesting support 
for the 2009 and 2010 Afghan Elections to Italian MFA Special 
Envoy for Afghanistan Sergio Mercuri on October 21.  Mercuri 
said that Italy has already contributed Euro 5 million to 
support Afghan elections since 2003, via UNDP and other 
channels, and had announced an additional Euro 1 million for 
election support at the Paris Support Conference in June (as 
part of its pledge of Euro 60 million per year for three 
years).  He did not rule out the possibility of additional 
contributions in the run-up to the 2009 elections, but said 
that Italy's tight budgetary situation would make new aid 
requests above the existing pledge levels difficult. (Note: 
MFA officials have told us that although aid levels will be 
slashed by up to 60 per cent in 2009, the MFA has secured a 
commitment from the Finance Ministry to support Italy's 
3-year Paris pledge, thereby protecting Afghan aid from 
budget cuts (Refs B and C)) 
 
¶2. (SBU) Italy is concerned that little progress had been 
made on the draft Afghan Electoral Law, but is not linking 
its financial contribution to completion of the law.  Mercuri 
agreed that presidential and provincial council elections 
should be held on schedule in 2009 and not be allowed to 
slip. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Mercuri also asked for U.S. support for Italy's 
plan, which FM Frattini had announced the same day in 
Islamabad, to hold a Ministerial-level Conference on 
Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of its G8 Presidency in 
¶2009.  Mercuri stressed that the "conference" would in fact 
be a simple Ministerial side event as part of the Outreach 
session in May or June, preceded by meetings at the Assistant 
Secretary and Political Director level in the run-up to the 
2009 Summit, in line with what Germany had done with regard 
to Afghanistan during its 2007 presidency.  He did not yet 
have details on the proposed conference agenda, but said that 
the focus would be regional cooperation with an emphasis on 
strengthening security and cooperation along the 
Afghan-Pakistan border.  Outreach partners being considered 
include India, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but the final 
format had not been decided and Italy would welcome U.S. 
input on the matter.  The conference would be designed to 
compliment, not compete with existing mechanisms such as the 
NATO-led Tripartite Meetings or the Friends of Pakistan 
group, of which Italy is glad to be a part. 
 
¶4. (SBU) When asked whether combating the narcotics problem 
in Afghanistan would be a theme of Italy's G8 presidency, as 
FM Frattini has suggested in the press on previous occasions, 
Mercuri replied that counternarcotics would be addressed (as 
it has been in the last several G8 ministerial declarations), 
but the primary forum for the discussion would likely be the 
G8 Rome-Lyon working groups and not the Ministerial session. 
 
DIBBLE