Italy's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved funding to keep the country's troops in Iraq until the end of the year, AP reported. Support to extend the mission came from Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, who have a comfortable majority in parliament. The center-left bloc is opposed to the war and voted against extending the deployment. The motion now goes to the Senate for final approval in a vote expected next week. The 283-207 vote in the Chamber of Deputies came a day after Defense Minister Antonio Martino told lawmakers that Italy's job in Iraq was not yet done but that a gradual withdrawal of its troops from there was not far off. "Immediate withdrawal is wrong because our work there is not yet completed," Martino said in parliament. "That's what the Iraqi government says, and the facts confirm it: on the one hand the many attacks, and on the other the slow but constant and virtuous growth of the Iraqi state." He added that "our work there allows us a gradual exit that is not far off in time." --more 1243 Local Time 0943 GMT
