Phil Stewart

MILAN, June 8 (Reuters) Hours before President George W Bush visits Italy, 26 US citizens go on trial in absentia in Milan today accused of carrying out one of Washington's most controversial policies in its war on terrorism.

The US citizens, almost all believed to be CIA agents, have been charged with kidnapping a Muslim in Milan in 2003 who was on Washington's list of terrorist suspects and flying him to Egypt where he says he was tortured under interrogation.

Italian spies, including the former head of the country's SISMI intelligence agency, are accused of helping the US citizens carry out the so-called extraordinary rendition.

Washington has said it will reject any request by Italy to extradite the accused.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro said the case was important since it would show the necessity of fighting against terrorism with ''the full respect of the laws of our Western democracies''.

''We want the punishment of the terrorists, but in the courtrooms. And we don't need to give to our enemies any reason for recruiting other members of their organisations,'' he said.

Italy's prime minister at the time, Silvio Berlusconi, and other critics say the trial is a mistake that sets the country on a dangerous path that could expose secrets of international espionage and create headaches for Rome.

AWKWARD The trial comes at an awkward time for centre-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi, an increasingly unpopular leader a year after taking office.

He is trying to keep fractious coalition partners united behind him -- and away from street protests against Bush due to be staged on Saturday.

Pacifists in his coalition want Prodi to pull Italian troops out of Afghanistan and scrap a permit to expand a US military base in the northern city of Vicenza.

Bush's visit threatens to draw out all of those issues.

''As far as I can see, Bush's visit is a liability for him and for Prodi. And the fact this trial is the day before makes it more so,'' said James Walston, head of the international relations department at the American University of Rome.

''Whatever the merits of the case, it will remind the world ...

that it appears American secret servicemen kidnap Muslims in Italy.

So, that's a big problem for the US administration.'' Prosecutors say a CIA-led team seized Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, bundled him into a van and drove him to a military base in northern Italy.

From there, prosecutors say the CIA flew him via Germany to Egypt where he says he was tortured with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

The Italian case begins just over a week after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a suit against a Boeing Co unit it accuses of helping the US Central Intelligence Agency transfer foreign suspects to overseas prisons.

The suit was filed on behalf of three people, including an Italian citizen, who the ACLU said were abducted by the CIA, detained and tortured.

REUTERS JK PM0507