ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

President Barack Obama, at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Thursday, praised Italy's economic reforms as helping take the recession-mired European nation in the right direction.

"I think it's clear that Italy is moving in the right direction in stabilizing its finances and embarking on reforms that will make it more competitive. And we spent a lot of our time discussing the importance of European growth," President Obama said.

Obama also said it is important to build on the good start to talks to control Syria's chemical weapons.