ROME, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Italy is working towards a meeting between United States President-elect Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday.

    Speaking after an Italo-German summit in Trieste, Berlusconi said it was one of Italy's top foreign policy priorities to try to return the Untied States and Russia to the "spirit" of a 2002 summit at Pratica di Mare near Rome where a landmark accord between Russia and NATO was signed.

    Berlusconi reiterated his concern over U.S.-Russian tension on tit-for-tat missile deployment, according to Italian News Agency ANSA.

    "For anyone who lived for decades with the nightmare of two opposing nuclear arsenals, returning to the past is ... to be avoided," he said.

    Italy is making diplomatic efforts to get Obama and Medvedev together, Berlusconi said. It also took advantage of the fact that they are "young, represent the new generation of politics (and are)distant" from the Cold War, he said.

    Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said last week that a strategy of missile proliferation was "no good for Europe, Russia or the United States" and Italy could help ease tensions.

    After Moscow's decision to deploy missiles near the Polish border in response to the planned U.S. missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Frattini said "Italy is really one of the few countries that can play a facilitating role. And I hope President-elect Obama can meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev really soon to discuss these issues."

    Frattini denied suggestions that Italy was "veering East" after Berlusconi said the day before Russia had been "provoked" into deploying the missiles.

    The European Union also expressed strong concern over Russia's decision.

    Medvedev last week hinted the Russian missiles would not be deployed if the United States decided not to go ahead with its missile shield.