Italy is requesting the extradition of more than 100 former South American leaders and officials over the disappearance, torture and death of Italians who were caught up in a crackdown on dissent in the 1970s and 80s, a prosecutor said tonight.

A former police officer alleged to have been a member of a far-right death squad active in Argentina during the mid-1970s has been arrested in Spain on a warrant to face murder charges in his native country.