ROME, Dec 11: Italy caved into massive pressure from its European Union partners on Tuesday and said it would lift its veto on an ambitious EU-wide arrest warrant that has been billed as a vital weapon in the war against terrorism.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose objection to the plan risked leaving Italy isolated and ostracized within the 15-nation bloc, signalled his retreat after crisis talks with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

“Italy accepts the European arrest warrant as defined at a meeting of justice and interior ministers on Dec 6,” Berlusconi told reporters, reading from a statement.

However, he said that Italy would have to change its constitution to accommodate the new procedures, indicating that the country might be slower than its partners in adopting the fast track arrest-warrant.

“Other nations have set 2004 as a date for implementing this accord and we expect a date sometime around there for us... although it could be after that,” Berlusconi said.

“If we can’t change the constitution, then we will remain outside this agreement...just as Britain and others have remained outside the euro, for example,” he added.

Italy’s EU partners agreed last week to introduce a list of 32 crimes for the new arrest warrant ranging from terrorism to fraud and from paedophilia to racism, which is aimed at cutting through the EU’s extradition bureaucracy.

“I’m very happy that Italy along with the rest of the other EU members has accepted the arrest warrant as presented and defined by the ministers,” Verhofstadt said.

Rome’s acceptance of the arrest warrant, albeit with doubts over the timeframe, marks a loss of face for Berlusconi who initially only wanted to see six crimes included on the list, with all financial crimes left off.

Berlusconi’s many critics accused him of objecting to the ground-breaking plan because he feared foreign magistrates would one day use the new measures to try to extradite him over alleged fraud in his far-reaching media empire.

The Italian government rejected those charges, saying it feared the new arrest warrant would enable foreign magistrates to meddle in domestic affairs without any political mechanisms in place to guard against an over-zealous judiciary.

However, with its EU partners falling into line and Italian commentators denouncing the government’s hardline stance, Berlusconi had little room for manoeuvre.—Reuters