BRUSSELS - European Commissioner Emma Bonino said she was surprised by an EU document released on Wednesday which forecast that Italy might miss a key economic criteria for European economic and monetary union. The European Commission predicted that Italy's 1997 deficit would be 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), just outside the three percent threshold established by the Maastricht Treaty for EMU aspirants. Greece was the only other country set to miss the mark, the Commission said. "The forecast...was surprising, especially if you compare these figures with other recent authoratative economic forecasts, which don't hide that other member states are having the same difficulties as Italy," Bonino, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Fisheries, said in a statement. A report by the International Monetary Fund, also released on Wednesday, said Germany, France and Italy would all have deficit/GDP ratios of 3.3 percent without additional budget action in 1997. The Commission report said both Franc

e and Germany would hit the three percent target this year. Italian media reported on Wednesday that Bonino, who earlier this week stated there was a "battle underway" in Brussels over the report, had held lengthy discussions with other European Commissioners prior to the release of the document. The Commission offered Italy some comfort in its report, saying that Rome could still make the three percent level: "if the (budgetary) measures already taken have full effectiveness and, if necessary, additional measures are introduced." Bonino welcomed the comment. "It is encouraging that the Commission recognises, even with some reservations, that Italy is capable of reaching the three percent criteria in 1997...It is an objective which even a year ago seemed unobtainable," she said. European countries are due to be judged in May 1998 on whether their 1997 economic performance was good enough for them to join EMU at its scheduled launch on January 1, 1999.