Frankfurt  - Lufthansa disclosed Thursday plans to upgrade its services operating out of Italy, but denied that the move was prompted by the maladies of its Italian rival Alitalia.

The German airline is to use six Airbus jets instead of the smaller Embraer planes it originally ordered for the new flights set to begin in February 2009.

A Lufthansa subsidiary, Air Dolomiti, will carry passengers direct from Milan's Malpensa Airport to Barcelona, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and other cities, said the group in Frankfurt.

To date, Air Dolomiti has mainly operated feeder flights to Lufthansa's Frankfurt and Munich hubs.

Rome  - Syria Thursday marked another step in its improving relations with the West by signing an agreement with Italy aimed at boosting political, economic and cultural ties.

"Co-operation between Italy and Syria has resumed through intense dialogue," Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, said at a joint news conference in Rome with Syrian counterpart, Wallid Moallem.

London - The leaders of Italy and Britain Wednesday pledged to end the European economies' dependancy on oil by pushing ahead with investment in nuclear power and alternative energy sources.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in London for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said Italy had "suffered from the Greens" in its ambitions to use nuclear power and he was determined to "catch up on lost time."

Salerno, Italy - Some 5,000 people on Tuesday began moving out of their homes in the southern Italian town of Salerno after builders discovered an unexploded World War II bomb.

Officials ordered residents, living within 250 metres of the construction site where the 230-kilogram device was found, to evacuate their homes while explosives experts decided what to do with it, the ANSA news agency reported.

Salerno's Mayor Vincenzo De Luca said that while he hoped the device would be disposed of "as soon as possible," people would probably only be allowed to return to their homes from Sunday afternoon.

Rome  - Italy's Roman Catholic bishops on Friday called on Italian dioceses to set aside a day on which the faithful will fast in solidarity with Christians in India who have been targeted in recent attacks.

The Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) said it was taking up an appeal launched by Pope Benedict XVI who on August 27 urged an immediate end to acts of violence against Christians in the Indian state of Orissa.

Brussels  - The European Commission on Thursday cleared controversial plans by Italy to fingerprint its Roma residents after the government agreed to make changes enabling them to comply with European Union rules.

A spokesman for the EU's top justice official, Jacques Barrot, said good cooperation between the European Commission and the Italian government had made it possible to "correct any debatable measures or provisions."

In June, the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi proposed fingerprinting ethnic Roma, including children, as part of efforts to obtain more reliable information about their numbers, schooling arrangements and living conditions.