ROME (AFP) - Italy's incoming government will keep its forces in Afghanistan, its designated foreign minister said in an interview Monday reacting to the weekend attack on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "The attack on Hamid Karzai shows once again that Italy and its partners not only cannot withdraw from Afghanistan but also that they should pursue the UN and NATO goals" of democratising the country and fighting the Taliban, Franco Frattini told leading daily Corriere della Sera. "It's not time to pull out," he added. Karzai escaped unharmed Sunday after militants attacked a military parade with rockets and gunfire, leaving three people dead including an MP and a 10-year-old boy who was killed apparently in return fire. Italy has some 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, stationed in the relatively calm western province of Herat and the capital Kabul. Italian soldiers do not take part in military operations against the Taliban in the south of the country. Frattini said he feared that the Taliban would "reconquer parts of the north instead of a democratic conquest in the south." Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, who scored a convincing win in Italy's general elections two weeks ago, has already named Frattini, currently the European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, as his foreign minister. The Berlusconi government will take office in May. Italy's deployment in Afghanistan was a sensitive issue for the fragile centre-left coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Last July, centre-left Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, citing an "unacceptable" civilian death toll, called on the United States to wind down military operations in Afghanistan in favour of the NATO-led ISAF force there. In February 2007, far-left elements sparked a major political crisis by voting against Prodi's foreign policy in the Senate, prompting him to resign before being reinstated and surviving confidence votes in both houses of parliament. Prodi's government collapsed in January this year because of the defection of a centrist ally, and Berlusconi's victorious centre-right government will be inaugurated in some two weeks.