ROME, Sept 10 (AFP) - Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called Friday on the United States and Europe to cooperate more in defeating terrorism, in a message on the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
"Now more than ever, Europe and the United States must operate together -- in the framework of UN resolutions -- to defeat the scourge of terrorism," he said in a statement on television.
"We remember this year the anniversary of the terrible terrorist attacks of September 11 while bearing in our hearts the image of the inhuman massacre of Beslan," he said, referring to the hostage-taking last week at a school in the Russian town which left at least 339 dead, nearly half of them children.
Saturday is the third anniversary of the 2001 suicide plane attacks in the United States which killed nearly 3,000 people
In his message Ciampi also referred to the abduction in Iraq of two female Italian aid workers.
"They are citizens of a country which nourishes a sincere and long-standing sentiment of friendship toward the Islamic world," he said.
"They decided to go to Iraq in a gesture of human solidarity. We anxiously await their release. The Italian people, as one, demand it."