Italy also denied the Times' report that the US ambassador had submitted a formal complaint after discovering through intercepted phone conversations that Italians had been buying off militants in the far-west Herat province.

A US embassy spokeswoman in Rome said the embassy does not comment "on internal diplomatic conversations that may or may not have occurred."

The newspaper cited a high-ranking Western intelligence source as calling the Italian behaviour an "utter disgrace" and that the "Italians have a hell of a lot to answer for."