ROME (Reuters) — The chief executive of Italy’s largest oil and gas company may be feeling U.S. pressure on Iran, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to him.Eni’s Paolo Scaroni is one of the Italian businessmen who, far from rethinking operations in Iran, says he is considering further deepening investment there. This is despite a US-led campaign to use economic sanctions to isolate Iran over its nuclear programme, and new legislation before the U.S. Congress meant to encourage “disinvestment” in foreign companies which profit in Iran’s energy sector.

“I intend to respect Italian laws, not the American ones,” Scaroni told Reuters, when asked if he felt U.S. pressure. He quipped at an earlier press event: “You don’t find oil in Switzerland.” Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s government has spoken strongly against Iran’s nuclear ambitions in public, voting for UN sanctions and supporting U.N. deadlines for Iran to stop nuclear enrichment.

But Washington wants Rome to send a stronger message to its corporations and banks about the risks of doing business in Iran, a senior U.S. official told Reuters. President George W. Bush, who visits Italy this week, is calling for the international community to “speak with one voice” on Iran. “It is one of the most critical issues in terms of our economic engagement with the Italians,” the U.S. official, speaking in Rome, told Reuters.

Italy is one of Iran’s largest trading partners thanks to companies like Eni, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary in Iran. Bilateral commerce grew nearly 10 percent last year to 5.7 billion euros ($7.66 billion).

While the US-led campaign is expected to discourage new entrants, established European firms have a lot to lose. Even the Italian state’s export credit agency, known as SACE, has 4.1 billion euros at risk in Iran. That’s about 15 percent of all its exposure worldwide, and SACE’s highest concentration of risk anywhere, according to data it provided to Reuters.

SACE, citing official data, said there has also been an increase in requests by Italians looking to invest in Iran.

“The Italians are so very exposed,” the U.S. official said. Beyond a public posture against investing in Iran, he said Rome needed “more diligence in credit policy”.

But things are changing, SACE responded. It also provided Reuters with data showing it had slashed its Iran portfolio by more than 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) since 2004.

Further restricting export credits may be at the heart of the next threatened round of economic sanctions. The United States also wants international banks to stay away from Iran.

A senior Italian Central Bank official said in an interview that his office has, starting in December, been privately warning banks about the growing risks associated with Iran.

“Several versions have been issued starting in December 2006 and then afterwards. These are notes kept private for the banks, in reality, but their contents are what I described,” Central Bank’s Deputy Director General Giovanni Carosio told Reuters. In an interview with Reuters, Iran’s Ambassador to Rome, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, played down any turbulence in bilateral ties caused by international sanctions. He also said economic ties were historically strong, and remained that way despite the international political climate.

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative U.S. think tank, listed Italy in May as one of the top four investors in Iran along with France, China and Germany.

Still, the most recent U.N. sanctions prompted Italy to take over control of the Rome branch of Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah <\m> and Zohrehvand criticised Rome’s handling of the operation as overly aggressive. But Carosio defended the move.

“The information I have is that similar measures were taken at (Sepah) branches in France and Germany,” Carosio said.

The US Treasury says Sepah is a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction, financing firms that provide Iran with weapons technology and materials. The bank denies this.

The Sepah takeover was only a diplomatic hiccup, but may be a sign of things to come.

Scaroni and others are watching to see how closely Italy, a proponent of multilateral bodies like the United Nations and the European Union, follows the US line. Scaroni said Eni was looking at developing a gas field in Iran, but acknowledged at a recent press event that Rome’s position in the coming weeks and months was a factor.

“We’ll also look at Iran’s international political situation to be sure that we take actions compatible with what our country, and possibly the European Union, should consider feasible,” Scaroni said.