The new Italian government will begin to work out a withdrawal plan for its troops in Iraq at a meeting scheduled for next week, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Saturday.

The meeting would probably be held on Wednesday, said D'Alema during a visit to Naples.

D'Alema, who is also a deputy prime minister, said the new government planned to convert Italy's presence in Iraq to a totally civilian one in nature.

The withdrawal was not a runaway, but a political choice, Italian news agencies quoted him as saying.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Thursday that the U.S.-led war in Iraq was a "grave error" and that the 2,600 Italian troops serving in Iraq now would be withdrawn from the country as soon as possible.

The previous Italian government headed by Silvio Berlusconi, a strong U.S. ally, had already pledged to pull out by the end of 2006, a deadline which Prodi said during election campaigning that he would respect.

Source: Xinhua