Italians nonplussed by US Easter terror alert

Italy has tightened security in four northern cities where Washington has warned that there may be terrorist attacks on American citizens.

But the Italian authorities expressed their irritation yesterday that the US government had failed to consult them before issuing the alert.

"Everyone who can be alerted has been alerted," the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said. "But the information we are receiving from the secret services and the police is reassuring.

"It seems that there is no reason for concern, besides what we already knew about: that there is a terrorist organisation in our country."

The US embassy in Rome said on Wednesday that it had received credible reports that extremist groups were planning attacks on Easter Sunday in Venice, Florence, Milan and Verona.

Places of worship, restaurants, schools and outdoor events were identified as being particularly at risk.

Italian leaders appeared surprised and dismayed by the state department's public warning. Antonio Martino, the defence minister, said he thought it was a mistake to name the date of the attack.

"Either the date is right, and publicising it to the world offers a precious signal to the terrorists so that they can change it; or the date is wrong, and then one cannot understand why they announced it, with the effect of terrifying people," he said in an interview with the Rome daily La Repubblica.

Gerardo D'Ambrosio, the Milan chief public prosecutor, said he had no evidence to support the validity of the warning, and accused the American government of "crying wolf".

Helping the terrorists spread alarm was playing into their hands, he told the Corriere della Sera.

He said the warning would merely "create anxiety" for residents of the four cities.

"I don't even want to recall their names because I might go to one of them for the Easter holiday and I don't want to have to worry for nothing," he added.

The Corriere della Sera said the carabinieri had received a warning a week ago of the possible arrival in northern Italy of three suspected Islamic terrorists. The group was dubbed the "pigeon commando" after one of the suspects was heard referring to a "pigeon festival" in an intercepted conversation.

Investigators believe he may have been referring to the Colombina, a traditional ceremony involving a dove which is one of the high points of the Easter celebrations in Florence.

Although they failed to find anything to confirm the warning, which had been passed to them by a central European country, the investigators forwarded it out of courtesy to the Americans.

The alarm was unjustified unless the Americans had succeeded in discovering further information, the Corriere said.

"If the CIA and FBI succeeded in obtaining further useful information on the terrorist plot, then one cannot understand why they didn't pass on the information to our police forces," it said. The paper criticised US unilateralism in the war on terror in a front page editorial.

A US embassy spokesman said the government was obliged by law to pass on such security information to American citizens. He said the Italian government had been told in advance.

"We realise it will cause difficulties for people in the four cities affected, and understand that it's a bread and butter issue for many people," the spokesman said.

The Italian police, already at full stretch in response to the threat from al-Qaida, are also contending with the revival of domestic leftwing terrorism after last week's assassination of the labour law expert Marco Biagi, for which the Red Brigades have claimed responsibility.