Italy's Meloni defends choice to reopen Damascus embassy under Assad

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday rejected criticism of her decision to appoint an ambassador to Syria before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, and she said she was ready to talk to the country's new government.

Italy, which announced the move in July, was the only Group of Seven (G7) member to have reopened its embassy in Damascus since civil war consumed the nation in 2012, Meloni said.

After the Assad regime fell earlier this month, the opposition denounced her July decision as an attempt to re-establish relations with the now-ousted president.

Giuseppe Provenzano, a lawmaker from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) told Meloni during a debate in parliament that the government had "worked for months to normalise relations with Assad."

Meloni said that keeping an embassy open in Damascus did not amount to a recognition of the Assad regime.

"Our ambassador never presented their credentials (to Assad)... Italy has a role in the stabilisation of certain nations and sensitive regions," Meloni told the lower house of parliament.

She also said Italy was ready to talk to the country's new rulers, who were sending "encouraging" first signals, while adding that caution was still needed.

"Words must be followed by deeds, and on deeds we will judge the new Syrian authorities. A decisive element will be the attitude towards ethnic and religious minorities, and I am thinking in particular of Christians," she said.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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