Italian judge suspends CIA rendition trial

An Italian judge today suspended the first trial involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme until the country's highest court can rule on the case.

The Italian government has asked the Constitutional Court to throw out the indictments against the 26 American defendants - all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents - accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terrorist suspect from a Milan street on February 17, 2003.

The government has argued that the judge who issued the indictments revealed state secrets to justify the charges.