An Italian prosecutor is trying to get tough with the U.S. State Department, seeking extradition of 22 CIA agents who protected an Egyptian cleric suspected of terrorism from prosecution, according to reports from a Rome newspaper this week.

Milan prosecutor, Armando Spataro, known for his Mafia investigations, said the agents kidnapped Abu Omar, also known as Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, in February 2003 from a Milan street then took him to a U.S. Air Force Base in Aviano.

The CIA agents are then accused of giving Omar safe haven in Cairo after being flown through Germany, according to Italian court documents.

Evidence has now come forward in the three-year-old case, showing complicity by CIA agents to keep the Egyptian from talking to Italian authorities in an effort to keep U.S. involvement in terrorist operations quiet.

Reports from Italy this week said Spataro wants to renew interest in the case and finally "get to the bottom" of Omar's removal from Italy. He also is seeking to have the CIA agents stand trial for kidnapping.

The report coming out of Rome this week added:

"The case has become celebrated in Italy since a judge in Milan issued arrest warrants for the 22 American agents said to have been involved in his disappearance.

"Abu Omar had been granted asylum in Italy but was under investigation by the Italian authorities for terrorist links. He was seized on 17 February 2003 and driven to the US-Italian air base at Aviano, north of Venice,then flown to Cairo via Germany. In 2004 he telephoned his wife and friends in Milan and told them that he had been taken to a secret prison in Egypt and tortured with electric shocks.

"Last year The Washington Post, citing three CIA veterans, claimed the Italian authorities had prior knowledge of the CIA's plan to grab Abu Omar and had approved it. "Both the CIA and the Italian service agreed beforehand that if the unusual operation was to become public, as it has, neither side would confirm its involvement," the paper reported. The report was denied by the Italian government.

The recent plea by the Milan prosecutor seeks to renew interest in a case that has been covered up by Italian and American authorities.

Originally the case broke into the open in December 2004 when Milan Justice Minister Roberto Castelli issued European arrest warrants for the 22 agents, including a demand for all documents related in the case.

Initially prosecutors believe Omar was abducted by the CIA as part of its covert programm called 'extraordinary rendition' in which suspected terrorists are removed without court approval to third countries for interrogation .

In 2005, Judge Castelli signed arrest warrants originally for 13 CIA agents that prosecutors say made up the CIA team which carried out the kidnapping. Nine more warrants were issued later in the year.

The Italian government has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the abduction, as critics claim such an operation could not have been carried out without authorities knowing.

A 2005 report in the Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper had this to say about the incident:

"According to Italian investigators, Abu Omar was forced into a van in broad daylight as he walked to the Milan mosque. Either then, or some time later, he was taken to the US air base at Aviano in northern Italy, they believe .

"Prosecutors also say they have found evidence of the cleric being taken to another US base, at Ramstein in Germany, before finally ending up in prison in Cairo .

"He was released in April 2004 and placed under house arrest, at which point he phoned his wife in Italy and said he had been tortured. He is currently reported to be back in prison in Cairo."

"He was released in April 2004 and placed under house arrest, at which point he phoned his wife in Italy and said he had been tortured. He is currently reported to be back in prison in Cairo."

According to other reports surfacing in Italy, The Corriere della Sera newspaper published Abu Omar's photo taken on the Milan street where he was abducted. It said the photo was taken by CIA agents a month before he was seized .

According to the Italian newspaper, the photo was retrieved by Milanese investigators from the computer of Robert Seldon Lady, the CIA chief in Milan until 2003 .

The report went on to say:

"Justice Minister Castelli met his US counterpart, Alberto Gonzales, for the first time in Washington last month (in 2005). The minister said that their talks had touched on a number of extradition cases, but declined to give details .

"The case of Abu Omar, whose full name is Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, is sensitive because of its implication that the CIA ignored Italy's national sovereignty .

"It has also risked further straining US-Italian relations after the emotional upheaval of a 'friendly fire' killing of an Italian agent by American troops in Iraq earlier this year .

"A preliminary hearings judge in Milan has also just opened procedures expected to lead to a request by prosecutors for the extradition of Abu Omar himself from Egypt .

"The judge noted that according to press reports he was in the Al Tora jail in Cairo. He said the justice and interior ministry had not yet answered prosecutors requests for official action to verify the imam's presence there.