Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Monday defended President Giorgio Napolitano from a German newspaper's criticism of his speech commemorating the WWII battle of El Alemein.
On Sunday the prestigious Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) published an article entitled They Keep On Firing which attacked Napolitano's speech a week previously in which the president criticised German and Italian war aims.
Frattini said Monday: ''I believe one must comment with deep regret on the words (of FAZ) regarding President Napolitano, who voiced a thought which all Italians, without exceptions, share''.
FAZ also criticised an October 21 Italian high court sentence demanding compensation from Germany for the victims of a WWII reprisal.
