This award so appropriately goes to a man that we in our industry think of as the king of the jungle when we learn our craft, we learn from watching the work of people like him

Sharon Stone

They will include some of the classic spaghetti Westerns from the late Italian director Sergio Leone - the man who catapulted Eastwood to international fame.

Accepting his award, Eastwood acknowledged his debt of gratitude to his host country and the director of movies such as A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

"Many years have passed since I first came to Italy as a young actor to work with an equally young director named Sergio Leone," Eastwood recalled.

He added: "This country has always had a special place in my heart. Grazie mi Sergio, for this Leone. I have always been very proud of the fact that I started my career in Italy."

Eastwood said he owed his award to Sergio Leone and Italy

Basic Instinct star Stone was equally full of praise - for Eastwood himself. She described being asked to present him with the award as a "humbling and uplifting experience".

She added: "This award so appropriately goes to a man that we in our industry think of as the king of the jungle when we learn our craft, we learn from watching the work of people like him."

The ceremony was followed by the first European screening of Eastwood's latest project Space Cowboys.

The movie has already received rave reviews and enjoyed box office success in the States, grossing more than $57m (�39m).

'Mystique'

Space Cowboys sees Eastwood team up with other veteran Hollywood heavyweights Donald Sutherland, James Garner and Tommy Lee Jones in a comedy about geriatric friends who are sent on a space mission 40 years past their prime.

Eastwood's three co-stars joined him at the Venice festival and Garner, 72, confessed that making the movie was not a bundle of laughs.

Eastwood teams up with other screen veterans in Space Cowboys

"The hardest thing about making the film was wearing the space suits. They're hard to get in and out of. Donald and I lost four or five pounds a day wearing those things," he said.

Eastwood found global fame as the man with no name in Leone's films and went on to become something of cult figure as the mean and moody police detective of the Dirty Harry movies.

But despite receiving several critics' awards during his career, he had to wait until 1992 to win his first Oscar - picking up two as the star and director of Unforgiven.

The award-winning Western will form part of the Venice Festival retrospective, as well a documentary about the actor called Out of the Shadows, from Bruce Ricker.

When asked what he considered to be the secret of Eastwood's success, Ricker shrugged his shoulders.

"The mystique of Clint is that there is no mystique - you have to take him as he is," he said.