ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran's nuclear ambitions and the energy crisis in Europe will top the agenda when Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini meets with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here on Tuesday, an Italian foreign ministry spokesman said.

    The two diplomatic chiefs will also examine the situation in the Middle East following the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections.

    Observers said the outcome of these talks will be of particular interest because Italy, together with its European Union partners and the United States, considers Hamas to be a terrorist organisation, while Moscow does not.

    The Balkans will also be discussed, ahead of upcoming talks on the future status of the Serb province, where the vast majority of the population is of Albanian origin.

    Bilateral discussions will primarily center on Russian gas exports to Italy in the wake of last month's reductions due to a political flap between Moscow and Ukraine and a severe cold snap in Russian which increased domestic demand.

    Italy receives just under a third of the gas it needs from Russia, while a third comes from Algeria and the rest from other countries like Norway and Libya.

    Italy is Russia's second most important trading partner in the European Union, after Germany, and last year the volume of trade between the countries hit 12 billion euros, almost twice what it was in 2004. Enditem