(ROME) - The return to power of Italian media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi is a boon for the European Union, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Saturday.

Italy and France "can work together to reinforce the political thrust of the European Union," he told AFP nearly two months after elections returned the right-wing Berlusconi, 71, to power for a third time since 1994.

"We have to recover the core of the EU, which necessarily would include Germany as well as the Paris-Rome axis," said Frattini, who left his position as deputy president of the European Commission to join Berlusconi's cabinet following the mid-April elections.

Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy like the "idea of a political Europe that is not obliged to follow bureaucratic rules but helps solve everyday problems," Frattini said.

"If the EU agrees on a common immigration policy, it will help its citizens. If Europe comes to an agreement on a European energy policy that would also be good, reinforcing our (negotiating) capability with our Russian and Arab friends."

Sarkozy and Berlusconi agree that "Europe should give more of itself politically even beyond" its borders, Frattini said.

"We have to show that Europe is committed to dialogue with the Arab world, to investing in the southern rim of the Mediterranean," he said.

Europe has a role to play in the Balkans, Lebanon, the Middle East and north Africa, he said.

Frattini also rejected accusations of racism and xenophobia after several recent incidents targeting gypsies, or Roma, and new harsher steps against illegal immigrants.

Berlusconi's government in May introduced a series of measures aimed at cracking down on clandestine immigration, some specifically targeting Roma.

"Italy has a tradition of solidarity and friendship towards the poorest," Frattini said.

But he added: "Honest citizens cannot accept violence."

Frattini said 30 percent of crimes committed in Italy are committed by foreigners, who make up 42 percent of the prison population.

"We cannot accept that," he said.

Turning to the US presidential election, Frattini said Italy would welcome either Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama or his Republican adversary John McCain in the White House.

"There's not a big strategic difference between them on the main issues of American policy," Frattini said.

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