(ANSA) - BELGRADE, FEB 2 - Miroslav Košuta, a Slovenian minority Italian poet and writer, passed away last night. Senator Tatjana Rojc (Democratic Party) announced that he would have turned 90 next March. Košuta was born in Santa Croce on the Karst Plateau, where he lived. He also worked as an Italian translator. On February 7, 2011, he received Slovenia's highest cultural award, the Prešeren Prize, for his literary work and contribution to the preservation of Slovenian language in Italy. (ANSA).