ROME: Italian authorities are still hunting 30 "terrorists" on the run abroad, the interior ministry said yesterday, days after far-left activist Cesare Battisti was jailed ending 37 years as a fugitive. "Thirty terrorists on the run, 27 from the left, three from the right: the names are on Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's desk," said a ministry statement. Fourteen of those being sought were believed to be in France, but the ministry said it would not be releasing the list or any names.

The updated list was compiled by the police and security services after the arrest of Battisti, said the ministry. Former communist militant Cesare Battisti, wanted in Italy for four murders in the 1970s, began serving a life sentence in a Sardinian prison on Monday. An international police squad tracked him down and arrested him in Bolivia earlier this month. Salvini, Italy's far-right interior minister, celebrated his capture in comments earlier this week. "Finally, after 37 years, a killer, a delinquent, an infamous person, a coward who has never asked for forgiveness, will finish up where he deserves," he said on Monday.

Italy's law enforcement and secret services were already at work in France and in South America, he said Wednesday during a trip to the southern region of Sardinia. "We expect an active, just collaboration from governments so that after 20, 30, 40 years, they hand over delinquents who have had it easy for too long abroad, to Italian jails," he added. - AFP