Italy arrests four suspected of G8 summit plot

The Italian police have arrested four people charged with plotting an attack on July's heads of state summit of the G8 group of industrialised nations, police sources said yesterday.

At least two of those arrested have links to the communist-inspired Red Brigades, who carried out attacks in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, kidnapping several public figures and assassinating politicians, the sources said.

A fifth person was detained, but has yet to be formally charged, and 15 others were under investigation, the sources said. They did not give any more details.

Italy will host G8 leaders between July 8 and 10 in the city of L'Aquila, which was badly damaged in the earthquake that shook the central region of Abruzzo in April, leaving some 60,000 people homeless.

The meeting had originally been scheduled to take place on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved it to focus attention and government resources on the aftermath of the disaster.