The Italians have invested a lot in security measures during the Winter Games, and recently added $12m more to the funds earmarked extra Olympic security.

Threats have been posted on various radical Islamic web sites, who say Italy and Britain could be attacked because it has troops in Iraq. Officials stress, however, that no specific threat was made regarding the Turin Olympics.
Still the government is taking no chances. Last month, it expelled a Moroccan-born Muslim preacher from Turin, saying he represented a danger to public security. Italy raised its security alert after the July 7 suicide bombings in London's transit system, stepping up measures at airports, government buildings, embassies and monuments. A recent intelligence report said radical Muslims, mainly from Morocco and Tunisia living in Turin's Piedmont region and several others in northern Italy, posed a risk to Western interests.

Management of security is in the hands of the Interior Ministry and the officials who arranged security following the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2. They are assembling a force from the national police, the paramilitary Carabinieri, the customs and tax police and forest rangers.

Italian police officials say they have been working closely with embassies and representatives of six or seven countries, sharing intelligence information and other data. A security seminar in Rome last month drew representatives from major international sports events, including the Salt Lake City and Athens Olympics and soccer's World Cup in Germany next year.