Italian Ambassador to Serbia Armando Varichio said Monday that Rome and Belgrade had good bilateral relations in the field of science and announced that Italy would soon appoint a science attache to further promote its diplomatic mission in Belgrade.

At a conference on bilateral relations, Varichio said that the good cooperation in science had been there for several decades, and that the role of the new attache would be to build the bridges between the Italian and Serbian scientific community.

Viktor Nedovic, the Assistant Minister for international cooperation and European integration with the Serbian Ministry of Education and Science, told Tanjug that Italy's decision to appoint the special attache was yet another proof of the long-standing successful cooperation between the two countries.

He added that the cooperation was taking place at several different levels and that both sides wanted to see it improved even more in the future.

Nedovic recalled that the cooperation with Italy was based on an agreement on cooperation in the field of science and technology that had been signed in December 2009.

One of the initiatives launched with the aim of further developing the relations is the one for the cooperation with Lombardy, the most developed region in Italy, Nedovic said, adding that some preliminary collaborative projects had already been set up.

Serbia will take part in the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), a project aimed at intensifying the cooperation and coordination between research institutions.

Nedovic said that ERIC was the first consortium of such kind that included Serbia as a founder, sharing the status with Italy, Austria, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic.

Nedovic said that a relelvant memorandum of understanding would be signed after the government gave its approval the following week, adding that the consortium should finally be established by year's end.