Italy changes heads of scandal-hit secret services

ROME, Nov 20 (Reuters) The Italian government today eplaced the heads of the country's embattled secret services, including one at the centre of allegations of involvement in a CIA kidnap of a terrorism suspect.

Political sources said the government named Admiral Bruno Branciforte to head the SISMI military secret services, replacing Nicolo Pollari.

An official statement was due later today.

Pollari and SISMI are at the centre of several scandals, including allegations they helped the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect in Milan in 2003 and paid journalists to plant stories and spy on magistrates.

Prosecutors say Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr was grabbed off a Milan street, driven to a US airbase in northern Italy and then flown to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.

They have issued preventative arrest warrants against 26 Americans and suspect that prominent Italian spies, including Pollari, helped them kidnap Nasr, who is also known as Abu Omar.

If a judge authorises a trial, it would be the first criminal prosecution anywhere in the world for ''renditions'', one of the most controversial aspects of US President George W Bush's global war on terrorism.

The government also named Franco Gabrielli, a former Rome police chief and anti-terrorism expert, to be new head of the SISDE civilian secret services.

Giuseppe Cucchi, head of a military strategy think tank, will head the national intelligence coordinating committee.

The Abu Omar case is only one of many that has hit Italy's intelligence services in recent months.

They also have been connected to a number of illegal wiretapping and invasion of privacy scandals and leaks to the media of sensitive police surveillance records.

REUTERS AB BST1645