An Italian court has requested the extradition of 26 CIA agents for their alleged role in the abduction of a radical Egyptian Muslim cleric in 2003, just a day after Spain announced it would hold another inquiry into CIA flights which allegedly used Spanish territory to secretly transport terrorist suspects around the world.

The Repubblica newspaper reported Friday that the court in Milan, which is leading the Italian investigation, sent an extradition request to the public prosecutor's office which would then pass it to Justice Minister Clemente Mastella. Mastella should then in turn send it to his US counterpart.

There was no comment from the Milan court.

The case threatens to further sour relations between Italy and the United States after the decision by Romano Prodi's left-wing government to withdraw Italy's troops from Iraq.

Milan's public prosecutor had already issued extradition requests for 22 of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents, but they were blocked by the justice ministry of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of US President George W. Bush.

In February 2003, the former imam, or prayer leader, Osama Mustafa Hassan, an Egyptian also known as Abu Omar and a terror suspect, was abducted in Milan by CIA agents and taken to Egypt.

Omar, who was living in asylum in Italy at the time, was allegedly taken to a nearby US air base for interrogation and later transferred via Germany to Egypt, where he is still in prison.

He claims to have been tortured in Egypt.

Under Italian law such abduction is illegal and anyone involved could face a jail sentence.

Scandal involves Italian agents

The case has rocked the Italian military intelligence service (Sismi), which denied knowledge of the abduction. An investigation has revealed that at least some members of Sismi took part in the operation.

The deputy head of Sismi, Marco Mancini, and his predecessor Gustavo Pignero have been arrested and last week the intelligence chief General Nicolo Pollari was questioned by investigating magistrates in Milan.

La Repubblica published extracts of a conversation that Mancini recorded with Pignero when he came under the judicial spotlight.

"Do you remember Gustavo, do you remember that the abduction order came from the director?" Mancini asks Pignero who replies "yes".

"And do you remember that two days later I said that we couldn't do that because we're not in Latin America?" Mancini questions, to which Pignero replies "Yes, I remember."

State secret law to be lifted

Pollari has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the abduction and he said he could not reveal state secrets during his questioning last week.

Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema has stressed that the government would do everything possible to help the investigation without harming the fight against terrorism. He also said that he would lift the obligation to respect state secrets.

In another twist in the long-running CIA scandal in Europe, a Spanish judge on Thursday accepted to head another inquiry into "extraordinary rendition" flights through Spain.

Judge Ismael Moreno, of Spain's highest criminal court, agreed to lead the additional probe after the court requested on July 10 that more light be shed on the case.

German national to give evidence in Spain

The court has called for people transported on the flights to be interviewed for the complementary investigation, notably German national Khaled al-Masri.

Al-Masri was seized by the CIA in Macedonia at the end of 2003 and mistakenly held as a terror suspect under grueling conditions in a jail in Afghanistan for five months.

The court has also demanded details on the personnel aboard the flights and background on flights at eight Spanish airports, including those of Madrid and Barcelona.

Moreno is already investigating 10 CIA flights that passed through the Balearic Islands between January 2004 and January 2005.

Spain has "categorically" rejected allegations in a report by the Council of Europe that it was one of 14 European countries which colluded in or tolerated the secret transfer of terrorist suspects by the United States.

Council of Europe on CIA case

Drawn up by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty, the report identified a "spider's web" of landing points around the world used by the US authorities for the practice of "extraordinary rendition" -- the undercover transfer of security suspects to third countries or US-run detention centers.

EU rapporteur Giovanni Claudio Fava alleged in a separate report released last month that the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean were "an important transit base."

Fava said that out of 1,080 European movements of planes allegedly chartered by the CIA between 2001 and the end of 2005, 125 went through 10 Spanish airports, mainly Majorca and Tenerife in the Canary Islands, although the Spanish government had only recognized

27 of them.