ROME: Italy will continue to support Lebanon through “a difficult phase of its history,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has told Najib Mikati, the Lebanese interim Prime Minister, during a meeting in Rome.

Mikati told Meloni on Thursday that his priorities were education, health and the election of a new president, according to a source close to the Italian Prime Minister.

The Lebanese leader called for “all international partners not to lower their attention towards the dire situation” in his country, the source said.

Meloni said Italian support to the Lebanese people and institutions would continue in the spirit of the two nations’ long-standing friendship.

She assured Mikati that Italy would “continue and further strengthen” assistance through its State Agency for Development Cooperation and its participation in the United Nations Interposition Force.

Mikati also met Pope Francis and the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin during a visit to the Vatican.

The Pope expressed “concern regarding the difficult socio-economic situation faced by the Lebanese population, which is aggravated by the current institutional stalemate of the country as it urgently awaits the election of a new president.”

Lebanon has been without a president since October after Michel Aoun’s term ended. MPs have failed to agree on his replacement due to boycotts and factional rows in Parliament.

According to a communique, Pope Francis stressed “the importance of the inalienable presence of Christians in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East” and called “for the peaceful coexistence among Lebanese of different faiths to be strengthened in order to guarantee peace and stability for the entire region.”