Draghi sets out plan to rebuild virus-hit Italy

Prime Minister Mario Draghi pledged Wednesday to use  "all means" to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated Italy, and said it presented an opportunity for the country to rebuild as it did after World War II.

In his first speech since taking office, the former European Central Bank chief listed the pandemic as his top priority of a long list of issues requiring urgent attention.

"The government will carry out reforms but will also tackle the emergency," he told the Senate, the upper house of parliament, where he has almost unanimous support for his new government of national unity.

The 73-year-old, parachuted in after the previous centre-left government collapsed, has been dubbed  "Super Mario" since promising to do  "whatever it takes" to save the euro during the 2012 debt crisis.

On Wednesday he promised to fight  "with all means" the pandemic that has left more than 94,000 Italians dead and sparked a deep recession, with the economy contracting almost nine percent last year. "Today we have, as did the governments of the immediate post-war period, the possibility -- or rather the responsibility -- to start a new reconstruction," Draghi said in his almost hour-long address.