Stockholm  - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt expressed his hopes Tuesday that Italy receive a "stable government that can carry out the reforms that the country needs so well."

In an entry on his personal blog, Bildt said that Italy needs to prepare for international tasks including the chairmanship of the group of eight (G8) leading industrial nations next year.

The G8 summit in Italy would be important as a stage for the new US president and in the run-up to a UN climate conference in Denmark at the end of 2009, Bildt said.

"I assume that the good foreign policy cooperation we have had with Italy in recent years for instance in terms of enlargement of the European Union will continue under the new government to be formed" by Silvio Berlusconi, Bildt said.