Italian premier Giuseppe Conte's envoy Pietro Benassi has ended a two-day visit to Venezuela - where about a quarter of the country’s population is in dire need of food and basic supplies - Conte's office said in a statement late.
During his visit on Monday and Tuesday, Benassi met leaders of the 160,000 strong Italian community - one of the largest around the world, the statement said.
Benassi expressed Italy's "closeness to our compatriots in this critical period and highlighted consular services and measures that it has rolled out to help the Italian community, especially its neediest members," said the statement.
During his visit to the crisis-hit country, Benassi and the Vatican envoy to Venezuela Aldo Giordano held talks with Venezuela's foreign minister Jorge Arreaza and a leader of the opposition and of congress, Juan Guaido, as well as several of its members.
The first shipment of humanitarian aid from the international Red Cross including medical supplies, electricity generators and drugs is being distributed in Venezuela after it arrived on Tuesday following a deal with socialist president Nicolas Maduro last month.
Maduro repeatedly denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and blocked the delivery of aid from the US and other countries, saying it was part of 'an imperialist plot'.
Malnutrition and disease have spread in Venezuela, which has endured the deepest economic depression in modern history among countries not at war and where some 5,500 people are fleeing the country each day.
Italy is member of a European Union led contact group set up in January as part of diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in Venezuela.
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain have signed up to the Venezuela contact group, as well as four Latin American countries - Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Bolivia.
