France’s Macron and Italy’s new PM Meloni held talks on Sunday

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron and new Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held talks in Rome on Sunday in the first, though informal, meeting between the two political leaders.

Macron, who’s currently on an official visit to Italy, in a post on Twitter in Italian after the meeting, said the two countries had to continue to work together, “with dialogue and ambition.”

Macron and Meloni discussed current European issues including the need to provide quick and common answers to increased energy prices, support for Ukraine and the management of migrant flows, Italy’s prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, formally took over from Mario Draghi as head of government earlier on Sunday after she and her new cabinet team were officially sworn in on Saturday in Rome, giving the country its most right-wing government since World War Two.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, but she sought to project a moderate image during the election campaign, dropping previous anti-EU rhetoric and pledging to keep Italy at the heart of European and Western institutions.

European Commission leaders in Brussels sent her messages of congratulations on Saturday.

Macron, who on Sunday attended a conference in Rome aimed at seeking ways to promote world peace, will meet Pope Francis on Monday.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Elizabeth Pineau and Sophie Louet in Paris and Giulio Piovaccari in Milan; Editing by Edmund Blair, Jan Harvey and Mark Porter)