ADDIS ABABA - An Ethiopian national treasure, the ancient Axum Obelisk which was plundered by fascist Italy in 1937, will be flown home from Rome in May, the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Sports said. The 200-tonne granite column was given a return date after an American company agreed to provide a plane big enough to carry the monument back in segments. Italy promised in 1947 to give back the 1,700-year-old obelisk, a symbol of the dawn of Ethiopian civilisation, but arguments and logistical problems have delayed its return. In November, the Italian and Ethiopian foreign ministries signed a deal for a final handover, but no date was set. Italy in 2002 took down the obelisk from the central Rome site where dictator Benito Mussolini erected it as symbol of Italy's victory over Ethiopia in the years leading up to World War II. Landlocked Ethiopia had to build a special runway for the only aircraft big enough to carry the pieces, the U.S.-built C-5 Galaxy and the Russian-made Antonov 124. An Antonov will be used. Aside from its historical importance to Ethiopians, the monument will take on new significance when it returns. The monument from pre-Christian Ethiopia is a funerary stele -- the largest and finest from the ancient site of Axum in northern Ethiopia, considered to be the cradle of its civilisation. Reuters