After rocky few years, Italy, France cement ties with new treaty

French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi put pen to paper in a ceremony full of pomp at the Quirinale palace of President Sergio Mattarella.

An aerial acrobatic display by both countries' air forces followed, trailing the colours of the Italian and French flags across a clear Rome autumn sky.

Draghi said the treaty represented a "historic moment" and evoked among others the writer Umberto Eco and actress Claudia Cardinale, two Italians who have become cultural icons in France, as proof of the strength of ties between the two Mediterranean powers.

At a joint press conference, Macron said the treaty -- only the second of its type with an EU partner, after a 1963 treaty with Germany -- "seals a deep friendship".

Italy and France have long been bound by historical, cultural and linguistic ties, their relationship deepened in recent decades by their memberships of both the EU and the NATO military alliance.

The treaty was signed just weeks before France takes over the rotating EU presidency in January, and at a time of change on the continent.

Britain's messy exit and rows between the EU's liberal democracies and their eastern neighbours have roiled the bloc, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who took a leading role in the EU, is bowing out following September elections.

Both Draghi and Macron emphasised their commitment to closer European integration, particularly in the realm of defence.

"As founding countries of the EU... we defend a more integrated, more democratic, more sovereign Europe," the French president said.

Macron denied Paris was looking for a "substitution" for its relationship with Berlin that has anchored the EU for more than 60 years, insisting the new Italian treaty was complementary.