ROME, Feb 21 (AFP) - Italy has advised Italian journalists in Iraq to leave because of the worsening security situation in the violence-wracked country, the foreign ministry said Monday.
The ministry said correspondents for Italian media had been advised to leave by Rome's embassy in Baghdad, in a repeat of an advisory first transmitted on January 10.
"Because of the deteriorating working and security conditions, the embassy has once again suggested that journalists leave the country," a ministerial spokesman told AFP in Rome.
The embassy warning follows the kidnapping of journalist Giuliana Sgrena, a correpondent for the daily Il Manifesto, on February 4.
Italy's ANSA news agency had earlier reported that the journalists had been told to leave within 48 hours following a tip-off from intelligence services.
The Corriere della Sera daily confirmed that its correpondent, Lorenzo Cremonesi, had left Baghdad Monday morning for the Jordanian capital Amman. The newspaper told AFP that a second correspondent would remain with the Italian military contingent in the southern city of Nasariyah.
"They told us that there's an alert concerning Italian journalists, but we don't know the specific motives," the agency quoted Cremonesi as saying.
Duilio Giammaria, correspondent for Italy's state broadcaster RAI, had also pulled out because of the unspecified threats.
02/21/2005 16:11 GMT - AFP