By Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Phil Stewart
ROME (Reuters) - Police have arrested a director at Italy's military intelligence agency on suspicion of helping the CIA in the alleged kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan, officials said on Wednesday.
It is the first time an Italian official has been linked to the 2003 abduction of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Nasr says he was flown to Egypt and tortured.
The arrest of Marco Mancini, a director of a division of the Sismi military intelligence agency, was first leaked by judicial sources and later confirmed in a statement by former Italian President Francesco Cossiga.
An Italian court has issued European arrest warrants for 22 suspected U.S. agents over the abduction, but no Italians had been sought until now.
If an Italian role is confirmed, it would lend evidence to allegations that European countries colluded with the United States in the secret "renditions" of terrorism suspects.
Italian investigators had been wiretapping Nasr before his abduction and accuse him of having ties to al Qaeda and recruiting combatants for Iraq, according to court documents. They say the kidnapping broke Italian law and ruined a promising investigation.
Mancini was accused of collaborating in the kidnap, the sources said, adding that an official statement would be made later on Wednesday by the prosecutor's office.
Cossiga, who is also a former interior minister with close contacts with the secret services, said in a statement that other Sismi officials were also being arrested.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Marco Mancini, a director of a division of the Italian SISMI military intelligence agency has been arrested in Milan over his role in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorist suspect by agents of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in what is believed to be an instance of Extraordinary Rendition.

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric living in Italy who was abducted,  allegedly by covert agents of the CIA on February 17, 2003 from Milan and flown to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. 

Italian investigators suspected that Nasr had links with Al Qaeda and say that they were investigating him when he was abducted. 

In June 2005, Italian judge Guido Salvini issued a warrant for the arrest of 22 persons said to be agents or operatives of the CIA over the kidnapping.