Brussels, 07/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Italian Foreign Ministry (La Farnesina) announced on Friday 7 January that Italian Foreign Minster Franco Frattini had sent a letter, co-signed by his counterparts Michèle Alliot-Marie of France, Radowslaw Sikorski of Poland and Janos Martonyi of Hungary, to the head of the EU diplomatic service Catherine Ashton calling for the issue of the persecution of Christians in various countries throughout the world to be put on the agenda of the Council meeting scheduled to take place in Brussels on 31 January. Frattini and his colleagues want EU member states to take definite steps to promote respect for the freedom of religion and expression. Frattini and Alliot-Marie decided this week to write to Ashton following a series of attacks against Christians in the Middle East over the last two weeks and, in particular, the massacre of Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, in the night of 31 December. On Friday, the day of the Coptic Christmas, French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned what he called “a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East - religious cleansing” in the Middle East. (GP./transl.rt)