TWENTY-SIX US citizens, almost all believed to be CIA agents, went on trial in absentia yesterday accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan and flying him to Egypt.

Italian prosecutors today said they were seeking the arrest of four more Americans as part of an investigation into the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.

Italian and Lebanese authorities have arrested 10 alleged terrorists, thwarting plans to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut in a car bomb attack.

MI6 was probably handed the forged documents that appeared to show Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium in Africa by Italian intelligence agents, it was reported today.