President Vladimir Putin thanked the Italian authorities for agreeing to transfer a Russian Orthodox church and house for pilgrims in Bari to the Moscow Patriarchate.
Bari, a city with rich historic ties to Russia, hosted the fourth expanded Russian-Italian intergovernmental talks.
This kind of bilateral dialogue provides an effective format for approving and adopting decisions on the most important issues, Mr Putin said following the talks.
Mr Putin and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi issued a joint communiqué summing up the results of the talks. A package of intergovernmental and business agreements covering a wide range of areas was signed. The documents include an intergovernmental agreement on mutual protection of intellectual property in the area of bilateral military-technical cooperation, a cultural and education exchange programme for 2007–2009, and a protocol on cooperation on a project to develop a medium-haul airplane.