Answering questions from the press, Prodi commented on Mesic's statement yesterday that Italian President Giorgio Napolitano's speech on Saturday, on remembrance day for foibe victims, contained "elements of open racism, historical revisionism and political revenge-seeking".
"We got in touch with the Croatian prime minister to express our bitterness over such absolutely unjustified words," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Prodi as saying.
The media also said that Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema cancelled a visit his state undersecretary Vittorio Craxi was to have made to Croatia tomorrow after Rome and Zagreb exchanged harsh words over Italian victims during World War Two, notably those thrown into foibe -- karst pits -- by the Yugoslav Partisans.
The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement last night that D'Alema invited the Croatian ambassador in Rome for talks today.
Prodi described Mesic's reaction to Napolitano's speech as a "low blow". That was "a virtually sudden blow," he said, adding that Mesic's words were "completely unjustified", especially coming after a "period of big cooperation between Italy and Croatia".
Prodi said he had personally pushed for Croatia's accession to the European Union and was all the more surprised "because the Croatian president's words do not reflect the spirit of the Croatian people".
Italian newspapers extensively covered the Italian-Croatian dispute. Corriere Della Sera and La Repubblica each gave it two pages, mainly saying that Croatia should speak about history openly, as Italy has done, and not unilaterally, and that Mesic has not understood Napolitano's speech about foibe.