Bucharest - Romanian President Traian Basescu and Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu embarked Wednesday on a whirlwind tour of five countries to review the Georgian-Russian conflict and its effects on the region.

In just two days, the Romanian duo were to visit the Ukraine, Moldava, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, meeting with their counterparts to review developments in the wake of the conflict in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.

In Kiev, Basescu is to meet Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to start the series of top-level meetings.

Rome - Romanian President Traian Basescu on Thursday told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that Bucharest disapproved of Rome's policies toward the ethnic Roma, including their fingerprinting.

"The Romanian government does not approve, I repeat, does not approve of part of a large part of the measures of the Italian government," Basescu said at news conference with Berlusconi in Rome.

Basescu was referring to a census of ethnic Roma - known colloquially as gypsies - ordered by the Italian government which also involves fingerprinting, including children.