Ahead of an international meeting on migration and refugees in the Mediterranean that opens on Monday in Sicily, Italy's foreign minister Angelino Alfano called for closer relations with Arab countries in the region.
"Italy's primary objective is to strengthen the close ties that already exist between Italy and the countries of the southern Mediterranean," Alfano said.
Cultural cooperation is the main driving-force to boost dialogue and a "shared project" of growth and development, Alfano said.
He will on Monday address a presentation in Palermo of the Italian foreign ministry's 2018 cultural programme in the Middle East and North Africa, 'Italy, Culture, Mediterranean'.
The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, and Tunisian foreign minister Kemaies Jhinaoui, are among speakers at presentation, the Italian foreign ministry said.
"Sicily can be a testing-ground for a new future between the two shores of the Mediterranean thanks to its history of tolerance and cohabitation between different cultures," said Alfano, who is Sicilian.
Italy is also hosting a conference in Palermo on Tuesday and Wednesday attended by representatives of the 57 member-states of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and its six Mediterranean partners - Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
Alfano and OSCE chairman Sebastian Kurz and secretary-general Thomas Greminger will open the two-day meeting centred on the migration emergency and related security issues which is being held at Palermo's Palazzo dei Normanni, the foreign ministry said.
