Italy's Berlusconi visit ends Belarus isolation

(MINSK) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi met Belarus' strongman president on Monday, on the first visit by a Western leader in 15 years to the country once dubbed Europe's last dictatorship.

Berlusconi's brief visit to the former Soviet republic included talks in Minsk with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko focused on strengthening business ties.

The visit brought to an end the diplomatic isolation imposed on Belarus by the West over its multiple abuses of human rights, which turned the country into a pariah after Lukashenko came to power in 1994.

"We can give an important kick-start to our commercial and industrial relations," Berlusconi told Lukashenko at the start of their talks.

"I could lead a delegation of Italian businessmen, and I know who the right people are," the Italian premier added.

"We have worked hard to reach a certain level of cooperation between the two countries and our large companies," Lukashenko said.

Last year, the European Union softened its stance on Belarus and lifted a travel ban on Lukashenko and other Belarussian officials, in what was seen as a new strategy of engagement with the country.

Lukashenko told the Italian newspaper La Stampa this week that he did not plan to make any concessions on human rights.

"I don't think that Silvio will ask me for any guarantees" on democratic rights, Lukashenko said, adding that "certain others" could learn from Belarus's example.

Berlusconi's visit came in response to Lukashenko's visit to Rome in April. The Italian premier said then that the time had come for Belarus to emerge from its isolation.

Lukashenko has previously received political leaders with an anti-Western stance such as Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Kadhafi, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Berlusconi has unique personal contacts that contribute to the development of geopolitical contacts. He visits Russia and the Arab world," Lukashenko's spokesman Pavel Lyogky told journalists.

Economic and commercial cooperation would be the "principal theme" of talks, Lukashenko's spokesman said, adding that dialogue between the EU and Belarus would also be on the agenda.

Belarussian opposition leader Anatoly Lebedko, head of the United Civil Party of Belarus, expressed doubts that the visit would promote democratic values in Belarus.

"Berlusconi is a colourful politician. He resembles Lukashenko, he has a spirit of political adventure," Lebedko told AFP.

"He is coming to Belarus as a businessman. For him, everything is for sale at a price, even if this requires him to sacrifice European values."

Agreements on energy, industry and agriculture were to be signed during Berlusconi's visit, as well as a draft agreement between Italian engineering group Finmeccanica and the Belarussian government, a spokesman for the Italian Embassy in Belarus told AFP.

Belarus is the only country in the European continent not to be part of the Council of Europe. It is a member of the EU's newly-formed Eastern Partnership programme, which is intended to regulate relations between the European Union and former Soviet states.

The detente in EU-Belarussian ties comes as Belarus has regularly quarrelled with its traditional ally, Russia, in recent years, and Lukashenko has exchanged cutting remarks with Russian leaders.