Two freed Italian aid workers have spoken of returning to Iraq despite a three-week hostage ordeal as their overjoyed nation shrugged off reports that a ransom was paid to free them.
Ms Simona Pari and Ms Simona Torretta, both 29, said they were taught about Islam and not harmed.
"I hope to return to Iraq soon. It's a country that I really love," Ms Pari said. "We were always treated with a lot of respect."
Ms Torretta was quoted as saying she would "do it all over again, with all of the consequences. . . . We never understood. But they apologised for kidnapping us and they even asked us for forgiveness."
They were blindfolded throughout the ordeal and never saw their captors, a source said after the women spoke to police.
Foreign Minister Mr Franco Frattini tried to quash talk about a ransom cash payment, saying Italy just capitalised on years of good deeds in the Arab world to secure their release.
"We've cashed a big credit. That's the ransom we've paid," he said. "A credit for all of the good things Italy has done."
But most newspapers and a leading figure in the ruling coalition spoke openly of a ransom of $1 million or more. The issue caused little controversy in Italy, which has a long history of paying money to home-grown kidnap gangs.
"Yes it was paid, it was right because the life of the two girls was more important than the money. I think it was paid by the intelligence services," Mr Gustavo Selva, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said.