Xi Starts Italy Visit With Key Pact In Focus

President Xi Jinping kicked off a whistlestop European tour in Rome on Friday amid growing Western unease over Italy joining the ever-expanding Asian giant's new Silk Road project.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is to sign a memorandum of understanding with Xi on Saturday for Italy to join the US$1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative, the first G7 member to do so, despite apparent divisions within the ruling coalition.

Italy on Friday rolled out the red carpet for Xi, who met his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella amid great pomp.

Around 1,000 extra police have been deployed around Rome for the state visit before Xi heads to Palermo, where his singer wife Peng Liyuan reportedly wants to see the Teatro Massimo opera house.

In what some perceived as a snub, Italy's far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said he would not attend Saturday's state dinner for Xi at Mattarella's Quirinal Palace.

Salvini has said Italy would be "no-one's colony" and urged caution about using telecom giant Huawei's next generation 5G mobile technology, while coalition partner Luigi Di Maio is keener for Chinese partnerships.

The United States has warned European allies that Huawei could use its 5G technology as a "backdoor" for spying, while China has lashed out at "immoral" attacks.

Nato member Italy's plan to join Belt and Road Initiative has raised eyebrows among Western allies and within Italy.

"Today we say 'Italy first' in trade relations, while remaining US allies, in Nato and in the EU," Deputy Prime Minister Di Maio of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement said on the sidelines of a China-Italy business forum on Friday.

Debt-ridden Italy is technically in recession and keen to have more business with China.

Xi heads to Monaco on Sunday and then on to France to cap his European tour. (AFP)