(ANSA) - Rome, January 18 - Italy's newest aircraft carrier, the Cavour, will set sail Tuesday for Haiti to provide logistical and and operational support to relief efforts there, navy sources said on Monday.

Captain Gianluigi Reversi will command the mission which will see the participation of the military corps of engineers who will be bringing some 100 vehicles, including earth-moving and construction equipment. The mission is a joint one with Brazil which will provide doctors and nurses for the ship's fully-equipped onboard hospital which has various operating rooms and wards for intensive care and first aid.

The hospital staff will be picked up when the Cavour makes a technical stop in Brazil after crossing the Atlantic.

This will be the maiden mission for the Cavour which entered service in June of last year. The ship has a crew of 530, although it can host up to 1,200 people, and carries up to 20 helicopters and aircraft.

Aside from its state-of-the-art medical facilities, the Cavour, which can cruise at 30 knots, can generate enough electricity for 6,000 homes.

ITALY CONFIRMS INTENTION TO CANCEL HAITI'S DEBT.

Italy has earmarked 5.7 million euros in aid for Haiti and intends to cancel the debt the Caribbean country owes it, valued at over 40 million euros, Foreign Undersecretary Vincenzo Scotti said on Monday. Speaking to the press after an emergency meeting of European Union foreign and development ministers on the crisis in Haiti, Scotti added that Italy was ready to send in members of its military Carabinieri police corps to Haiti to help ensure security for the distribution of aid. The Carabinieri would be part of an EU police force to restore order and end looting on the island, agreed on at Monday's meeting. The EU decided at the meeting to allocate 122 million euros in emergency aid for Haiti, 30 million from the EU's executive Commission and the rest from member states, plus another 100 million euros, all from the Commission, in non-humanitarian aid.

Also attending Monday's meeting was Italy's civil protection chief, Guido Bertolaso, who coordinated emergency and relief efforts after last April's earthquake the central-southern region of Abruzzo which left some 300 people dead. According to Bertolaso, what is lacking in Haiti now is ''a strong leadership'' to manage the situation there. ''What is needed is someone who gives the orders and tells the various countries which want to help what they can do,'' he observed. One of the EU's main problems, he added, is that its new executive has only just taken office ''and a lot of people are not prepared, they don't know what it means to manage an emergency like an earthquake''.

Also on Monday,it was confirmed that a United Nations official specialised in political relations was the second confirmed Italian casualty from last Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Haiti. UN officials here said on Monday the body of Guido Galli, 45, was dug out of the rubble at what once was the Hotel Christopher, which served as the headquarters of the UN's peace force in Haiti and that crumbled in the powerful earthquake.

The foreign ministry in Rome also confirmed Galli's death.

A second Italian UN official, 39-year-old Cecilia Cornero, is also missing and believed to have been in the same hotel at the time of the quake.

Galli had been in Haiti since July 2008 and his sister Francesca said he as responsible for handling relations between the UN and Haitian government.

A native of florence, Galli worked with NGOs in Mexico and Guatemala and after joining the UN his first mission was in Afghanistan. The first Italian to be confirmed dead was 70-year-old Gigliola Martini, born in Port-au-Prince of Italian parents, who died of her injuries in hospital last week.

Seven other Italians have not been accounted for out of the 191 registered with the Italian consulate.