Italy's coalition will work to avert EU disciplinary action over budget - PM office

Italy's coalition leaders have agreed on the need to avert a European Union disciplinary action over Rome's worsening public finances at a meeting with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte late on Monday, the PM office said.

Conte said in a statement published overnight he and his two deputies - League leader Matteo Salvini and 5-Star Movement head Luigi Di Maio - would meet with Economy Minister Giovanni Tria and his staff "to draw up a strategy to be adopted in discussions with Europe so as to avoid an infringement procedure for the country, and to set up a shared budget package."