British police 'traced escaped bomb suspect to Italy'
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Carlo De Stefano, head of the Italian Anti-Terrorist Force, also told reporters he hoped extradition of suspect Hussain Osman, arrested in a flat in a southern suburb of Rome on Friday, would not take too long.
British Police believe Osman, the alleged would-be Shepherd's Bush train bomber, fled the country on the Eurostar from Waterloo on 26 July.
There has been controversy in Britain over the fact that Osman was allowed to flee the country.
When held in Rome, he became the last of the four 21 Julyattempted bombing suspects to be held, after one was detained in Birmingham on Wednesday, and two in London on Friday.
Mr De Stefano said that on July 26, English police alerted Italian police that one of the suspects had left Britain. On that day, he said, checks were carried out on Italian phone numbers that had, in the past, been in contact with Osman. Specialist police were immediately involved, and more phone checks led to Osman's arrest in the suburb of Tor Pignatarra.
Asked whether extradition could be a lengthy process, Mr De Stefano said: "I hope it won't take very long."
He also said Osman appeared to be a member of an ad-hoc group.
Mr De Stefano also revealed that Osman had falsified his name and nationality to enter Britain.
Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac changed his name to Hussain Osman and said he was a Somali when he arrived in London to make his request for political asylum.
Mr De Stefano said: "Investigative evidence gathered so far does not support the theory that there are links with other investigations in Italy into Islamic
terrorism, nor with terrorist organisations active in our country.
"The behaviour of Osman, as documented by investigations carried out in Italy, lead to it being thought probable that he belongs to an ad-hoc group, rather than a structured organisation."
British authorities are seeking to take Osman back to the UK as part of the European Arrest Warrant Procedure.
The warrants - which became effective in Italy only last Thursday - are designed to simplify and accelerate extradition procedures, and have brought the average length of the process down from nine months to just 45 days.
Osman's lawyer Antonietta Sonnessa visited him in prison today where there was due to be a court hearing relating mainly to paperwork.
Documentation is due to arrive from London to support Britain's bid to get him back.
Judges in the Court of Appeal have up to 60 days to decide whether to send him to the UK, and a decision could happen at any time in that period.
Ms Sonnessa wants Osman to be tried in Italy, away from the hot house atmosphere in England following the attempted attacks of July 21, and the actual attacks two weeks earlier, which killed 56 people.
Italian police have also arrested two brothers of Osman, Ramzi, in Rome, who is being questioned over alleged possession of false documents, and Fati, in the northern city of Brescia, over alleged destruction of documents.
Mr De Stefano said there were five brothers. Ramzi and Fati, emigrated from Ethiopia in 1989 and were later joined by three others, including Osman.
In 1996, Osman and another brother Wahib went to England.
The government recognised their status of political refugees and gave them economic help, he added.