"I will indict Italy and the US at the Hague. Their governments are doing their utmost to stop the trial of Abu Omar's kidnappers taking place in Italy," Omar's lawyer, Montaser al-Zayyat, told pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Al-Zayyat intends to personally represent Nasr, the former imam of Milan's mosque, at the trial when it resumes in Italy later this month.

"I am optimistic and hope that the sentences passed at the end of this trial will be exemplary, to prevent similiar episodes occurring in the future," said al-Zayyat.

Al-Zayyat will in mid-April attend a United Nations human rights conference in the Italian capital, Rome.

Nasr was allegedly kidnapped by US and Italian intelligence agents from a Milan street in broad daylight in February 2003 in a controversial US operation - 'extraordinary rendition' - whereby terror suspects are allegedly abducted and secretly transferred to detention centres around the world.

Prosecutors in the case say Nasr was flown to Egypt, where he was detained in a Cairo jail and allegedly tortured, a version confirmed by the cleric who has since been released from jail.

The trial is the first ever in which officials are being prosecuted for organising the highly controversial anti-terror measure.

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