Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must ''repudiate the decision'' of his justice minister to grant political asylum to former Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a television interview on Thursday.
Frattini said he was ''weighing up what to do'' with the Italian ambassador in Brazil, Michele Valensise, after calls from Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa to recall Valensise to Rome in the wake of Brazil's decision.
He added that he was waiting for Lula to reply to a letter from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, in which Napolitano ''expressed surprise'' over the ruling.
Brazil reiterated Monday it would not review last week's decision by Justice Minister Tarso Genro to grant political asylum to Battisti, who is wanted for four murders.
Italian Minister for Relations with Parliament Elio Vito said Wednesday that an appeal to Brazil's supreme court was in the works.
The 54-year-old Battisti was arrested in Brazil last March, some four years after he had fled to that country to avoid extradition to Italy from France, where he had lived for 15 years and become a successful writer of crime novels.
