It is up to Italian Justice Minister Clemente Mastella whether to forward extradition requests to the United States for CIA agents accused of snatching an Egyptian cleric from Milan four years ago, the foreign ministry stressed Thursday.
The US State Department has already said it would decline any such request, but the question is still politically sensitive.
"The issue is very important," a foreign ministry spokesman said, citing international controversy over "the best way to reconcile the struggle against international terrorism with basic guarantees for human rights".
Earlier this month, a Milan judge ordered 26 CIA agents and six Italian intelligence officers to stand trial in Milan next June for the kidnapping of Muslim cleric Abu Omar.
There has been disagreement in Romano Prodi's centre-left government over whether to forward extradition requests.
The premier has declined to address the matter other than noting that Mastella has the last word over such requests.
John Bellinger, legal advisor to the State Department, confirmed earlier this week that so far US authorities have received no extradition request from Italy.
"If we do receive one, we will not agree to extradite American officials to Italy," he said.
If it goes ahead, the June 8 Milan trial could be the first judicial examination of the controversial American policy of 'extraordinary rendition', the abduction of terrorism suspects in one country in order to have them interrogated in another.
Egyptian refugee Abu Omar, whose real name is Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, was the imam of Milan's main mosque when he disappeared from the northern city on February 17, 2003.
Milan prosecutors say Omar was snatched by a team of CIA operatives with Sismi's help and taken via Germany to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
The suspected CIA agents include the former CIA station chiefs in Italy and Milan, Jeff Castelli and Robert Seldon Lady. Like the others, they have left and will be tried in absentia.
The Italian defendants include the former head of SISMI military intelligence Niccolo' Pollari and his former No.2 Marco Mancini.
Although a trial date has been set, proceedings could be halted by a suit that the Italian government has filed against Milan prosecutors, saying they overstepped their bounds in the case.
The Constitutional Court must decide whether the prosecutors overreached their constitutional powers and needlessly exposed other agents.
Before considering the merits of the case - a process which according to legal experts may take as long as six months - the Court must first decide whether the matter falls within its remit.
It will begin weighing that issue on April 18. Some legal experts say the Milan trial could be halted merely if the Court opens a review.
Last week the European Parliament rapped several countries including Italy for allowing the US to fly terror suspects to foreign locations where they are believed to have been tortured.
The US admits renditions but denies torture.
Bellinger described the EU report as "unfair, inaccurate and distorted".
Omar, whose real name is Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, was released from an Egyptian prison on February 18 and he let it be known that he wants to return to Italy, despite being wanted here on terrorism charges.
The cleric's lawyer said his client also wants to sue former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi - in power when he was abducted - for 10 million euros and Italian and US intelligence agencies for 20 million euros.
On Thursday the Italian foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the possibility of Omar being able to return to Italy.
