– the United Kingdom, France, and Russia – sought to attract more allies to their side. The first attempt to bring in Italy (a part of the Triple Alliance) as an ally of the Entente was in August–September 1914. The matter became closely related to contemporary efforts to obtain an alliance with Bulgaria, or at least secure its neutrality, in return for territorial gains against Entente-allied Serbia. As compensation, Serbia was promised territories which were parts of the Austria-Hungary at the time – specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina and an outlet to the Adriatic Sea in Dalmatia. Negotiations First offers The August–September 1914 negotiations between the Entente and Italy were conducted on Russian initiative. On 4 August, only a day after Italy declared neutrality, its ambassador to Russia said that Italy might join the Entente in return for Trentino, Vlorë, and a dominant position in the Adriatic. Believing that such a move by Italy would prompt Romania to join the Entente as well against Austria-Hungary, Russian foreign minister Sergey Sazonov pursued the matter. British Foreign Minister Edward Grey supported the idea; he said that Trieste should be added to the claim as potentially important to win over Italian public opinion on joining the war. The Italian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Guglielmo Imperiali, presented Grey with Italy's conditions, but Grey did not consider the talks could produce any practical results. He told Imperiali that Britain would not consider the matter any further until Italy committed itself to joining the Entente. On Grey's instructions, Rennell Rodd, British ambassador to Italy, asked Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra if Italy could enter the war. Salandra informed Rodd that this was impossible at the time and that any premature attempt to abandon neutrality would jeopardise any prospect of a future alliance. Sazonov was informed accordingly, and Russia abandoned the matter. The motives for the Entente's overture to Italy and Italian consideration of entering the war were entirely opportunistic. The Entente saw Germany as the principal enemy and wanted to force it to divert some of its forces away from the existing battlefields. Italy had basically different interests from the Entente powers. It saw opportunities to fulfil Italian irredentist objectives in Austria-Hungary, to gain a dominant position in the Adriatic basin and to expand its colonial empire. Initially, the majority of the Italian public favoured neutrality, but groups favouring an expansionist war against Austria-Hungary formed in