ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />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.<br/> <br />"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.<br/> <br />Obama also said it is important to build on the good start to talks to control Syria's chemical weapons.
