Sicilian Governor on Mafia Charge

The senior representative in Sicily of Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing coalition has been charged with aiding and abetting the mafia.

A two-year investigation concluded that the island's governor, Salvatore Cuffaro, passed on secret information he knew would be of vital interest to an alleged Cosa Nostra don.

Mr Cuffaro has denied the charges and his party said it was standing by him.

A spokesman in Sicily for the party, the Union of Centre Democrats (UDC), said the governor had passed up an opportunity to acquire immunity by declining to stand as a candidate in this year's European assembly elections.

Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic Left, said the governor should resign.

The UDC is the third biggest of the four main parties in Mr Berlusconi's governing coalition. A leading member, Rocco Buttiglione, was named in July by Mr Berlusconi as Italy's new EU commissioner.

Last month, the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, made Mr Buttiglione responsible for security, justice and freedom.

The call for Mr Cuffaro's indictment emerged from an inquiry set up to trace the origin of leaks during an inquiry into a local doctor, Giuseppe Guttadauro, who is accused of being the boss of Cosa Nostra in its Palermo stronghold.

Much of the evidence was gathered by police who listened to conversations at his home before he became aware that they were eavesdropping on him. The investigators concluded that Dr Guttadauro learned that his home was being "bugged" from another doctor. The colleague alleged that he, in turn, had been tipped off by Mr Cuffaro.

Court papers show that before Dr Guttadauro discovered the eavesdropping, he was recorded apparently describing how the mafia had funded Mr Cuffaro's 2001 election campaign. According to a transcript, he told his brother-in-law that Mr Cuffaro was handed packages of cash "in the least elegant, but most tangible way possible".