President Clinton and the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, yesterday tried to reduce the tensions caused by the acquittal of the US Marine pilot charged with the manslaughter of 20 people in the Italian Alps.
Captain Richard Ashby was flying the aircraft which sliced through the cable carrying the victims at a ski resort in northern Italy. His acquittal has caused shock among the relatives of the victims, some of whom attended his court martial at a Marine base in North Carolina. The navigator of the aircraft still faces manslaughter charges but they are now expected to be dropped.
Mr D'Alema's visit to the White House yesterday had been planned in advance and it was only coincidence that it followed so closely on the court decision.
President Clinton, at a joint press conference, said that he had called for new safety measures to ensure there would be no repetition of such a tragedy. He said he was "profoundly regretful and apologetic" for the accident.
Because legal procedures were still pending, he was unable to comment further, the President said, but he accepted that the US had the "responsibility and accountability" for the accident.
Mr D'Alema said he told Mr Clinton that he and people in Italy were shocked at the acquittal. He understood that it was not possible to interfere at this stage with a judicial process which was not yet over.
The Prime Minister said it was not acceptable or normal that a military aircraft should fly at such low altitudes and those responsible should be punished for it.
Captain Ashby said in a CNN interview yesterday that the victims' families should receive compensation. He said that he and the three other crew members had written a letter of apology to the families immediately after the accident but the Marine Corps refused to deliver it.
The White House press secretary, Mr Joe Lockhart, said yesterday that the accident was "a tragedy both for the families and for. . . the country of Italy."
Italian politicians and media commentators joined in a chorus of anger and indignation at the acquittal.
Those killed in the accident were mainly tourists, including seven Germans, five Belgians, three Italians, two Austrians, two Poles and one Dutch. Although Italian authorities originally wanted to try Capt Ashby and fellow officers in Italy, the US government invoked the 1951 NATO Status of Forces Agreement under which NATO members are not required to surrender jurisdiction in inquiries involving the carrying out of official duties. Capt Ashby, therefore, was tried and acquitted by a jury of fellow officers at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
"This judgement is absolutely unacceptable. We have plenty of respect for the American judiciary but we had 20 people killed in Italy. We don't want a vendetta but we do want justice," commented the Minister for the Interior, Ms Rosa Russo Jervolino, of the Popular Party. In Bonn, the German government said yesterday it would lend political support to compensation claims against the US by the victims' families.