ROME, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao and ANSA news agency CEO Stefano De Alessandri signed an agreement on Friday to launch the Xinhua Italian Service.

At the signing ceremony, Cai said that the Italian service is a milestone in the cooperation of the two news agencies, which will further strengthen the understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Alessandri said that the launch of the service will enable Italians to learn about China through the authoritative channel of Xinhua News Agency, and ANSA is proud of cooperating with a partner like Xinhua.

Xinhua News Agency distributes news across the globe in eight languages --Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and Japanese. The Italian service increases the number of Xinhua news service languages to nine.