'Flexible' NATO spending targets affordable for Italy, PM Meloni says

ROME (Reuters) -New NATO targets for higher defence and security spending are affordable for Italy as they give countries "total flexibility" on how to reach them, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the end of a NATO summit in the Netherlands, Meloni said "not a single euro" would be diverted from other budget priorities to fund the planned increase in defence spending.

NATO leaders backed a plan to raise overall defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035, from the current 2% goal, to heed demands from U.S. President Donald Trump that Europe pay more for its own security.

Countries would have to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence - mainly troops and weapons - and 1.5% on broader defence-related measures such as cyber security, protecting pipelines and adapting roads and bridges to handle heavy military vehicles.

"I am persuaded that the new targets are sustainable, there is total flexibility," Meloni said, adding no minimum annual spending increase would be required.

She did not elaborate on how heavily-indebted Italy would fund the new commitments.

Only 17% of Italian supporting increasing defence spending, according to a poll by the European Council of Foreign Relations, the lowest proportion among 12 European countries surveyed.

Meloni said her government had no immediate intention to use an EU flexibility clause that halts disciplinary measures for countries that break the bloc's deficit rules in order to spend more on defence.

"For 2026, we do not think we need to use the clause, for the years to come we will evaluate based on what the economic situation is," she said.

Meloni also said she was confident the European Union and the U.S. could end a trade dispute with an agreement on reciprocal 10% tariffs.

"A 10% tariff base would not be particularly impactful for our firms," she said.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones)