Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this afternoon, spoke with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had telephoned in order to apologize for having to postpone the visit to Israel that he had planned for this coming Monday for the memorial events for the late Yitzhak Rabin.

The Italian Prime Minister said that he was compelled to do so due to important votes in the Italian parliament on Tuesday; he added that his office would coordinate to reschedule the visit as soon as possible and invited Prime Minister Sharon to visit Italy.