Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he will travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents, and said Europe should review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

Trump spoke of a "shared cultural and political heritage" that dates back to ancient Rome in a 2019 news conference with the Italian president.

President Biden was set to meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis during what would have been his last presidential trip abroad.

ROME (Reuters) - The United States has not submitted any formal request of extradition for an Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini detained in Milan, Italy's justice minister said in an interview published on Thursday.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was briefly wrongfooted by a surprise question about ants on Thursday when she faced a grilling by Italian and foreign reporters lasting more than two hours. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

Elon Musk said on Monday he was ready to provide Italy with secure communication services after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denied that the issue had come up during a weekend visit to the United States.

The United States and Italy both booked tickets to the United Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday, with Coco Gauff setting a marker for her rivals ahead of next month's Australian Open.

An Italian journalist arrested and jailed in Iran since December has been freed and returned to Rome on Wednesday, even as a diplomatic spat between the two countries lingers over an Iranian held in Milan.

The Kremlin has welcomed a meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump just days after he claimed Vladimir Putin wanted to sit down with him.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there could be progress on setting up the meeting after Trump is sworn in as US president on 20 January.

The fate of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran and an Iranian engineer imprisoned in Italy on a U.S. warrant grew even more intertwined Friday as the Iranian awaits possible extradition to the United States to face charges he provided drone technology to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard corps.