ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday condemned the "unacceptable act of repression" in Venezuela, hours after the brief arrest of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Premier Giorgia Meloni said in a note issued by her office at Palazzo Chigi on Friday that reports coming from Venezuela "represent another unacceptable act of repression by the regime" of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Thursday she didn’t believe President-elect Donald Trump actually intends to use military force to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, saying she read his comments more as a warning to China and other global players to keep their hands off such strategically important interests.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said she doesn’t believe President-elect Trump has a plan to purchase Greenland or acquire it through military force. “I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni promised to keep supporting Ukraine, as the leader of the embattled nation, Volodymyr Zelensky, reached Rome for talks on Thursday evening. Meloni welcomed Zelensky at her official residence for a private discussion that lasted just under an hour.