ROME (Reuters) - 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.

Trump spoke of a "shared cultural and political heritage" that dates back to ancient Rome in a 2019 news conference with the Italian president.

President Biden was set to meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis during what would have been his last presidential trip abroad.

Elon Musk said on Monday he was ready to provide Italy with secure communication services after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denied that the issue had come up during a weekend visit to the United States.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was briefly wrongfooted by a surprise question about ants on Thursday when she faced a grilling by Italian and foreign reporters lasting more than two hours. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The fate of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran and an Iranian engineer imprisoned in Italy on a U.S. warrant have grown even more intertwined.

An Italian journalist arrested and jailed in Iran since December has been freed and returned to Rome on Wednesday, even as a diplomatic spat between the two countries lingers over an Iranian held in Milan.

The United States and Italy both booked tickets to the United Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday, with Coco Gauff setting a marker for her rivals ahead of next month's Australian Open.

Italy's government is ready to push ahead with a contested plan to hold asylum seekers in detention centres in Albania, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday.

Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, joins just a handful of other world leaders who have been to the president-elect’s Florida estate since his victory.