The need to step up the fight against international terrorism and organized crime was the focus of talks in Rome on January 12 between Italian and Indian foreign ministers Lamberto Dini and Jaswant Singh.

"We had a wide-ranging discussion which started from an assessment of the recent hijacking of the Indian airliner," Dini said.

"We stressed the need to fully activate all the instruments at our disposal to fight international terrorism, wherever it comes from," he said, highlighting the importance of exchanging information on the subject.

Singh explained to Dini the complex ethnic and religious mix in India and voiced the hope that bilateral cooperation could be strengthened.

He thanked Dini for the solidarity shown during the hijacking and noted that all countries have their own areas of instability.

Dini described bilateral relations as good and said India and Italy had many common interests in the political and economic field. They should therefore have more frequent contacts, he said.

The two ministers ended the meeting by pledging to table more frequent consultations. As a sign of this, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari will be in Italy at the beginning of next month. (Xinhua)