There is still a risk of terrorist attacks on Italian soldiers and civilians abroad, according to the annual report of the secret services.
''The probability of attacks against Italian soldiers and civilians abroad remains high, especially in crisis areas such as Lebanon and Afghanistan but also in other areas where our interests are present, said the report, which was delivered to parliament on Friday.
There has been a ''dramatic increase'' in Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan, ''with obvious repercussions on the security of the Italian forces'' in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Italy has nearly 2,400 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of ISAF, most of them in the west of the country.
Earlier this month Italy registered its 12th death in Afghanistan.
The rise in Taliban terrorism went ''hand in hand with its strong expansion in Pakistan,'' the secret services said.
Islamist terrorism was also a danger on the home front since ''jihad terrorists, especially from North Africa, were continuing to use Italy for ''logistical'' reasons. As for Red-Brigade style groups, ''subversive fringes'' remained active and were ''interested in using and fuelling extremist elements to incite them to all forms of social rebellion,'' the report said.
These subversive groups, despite a string of arrests in recent years, ''may try to reorganise, exploiting the pockets of social malaise on which extremist ideologies feed,'' the secret services said.
On the mafia front, the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta remained the most dangerous threat, even more than its Sicilian cousin Cosa Nostra, the report said.
Analysts say the 'Ndrangheta is harder to penetrate than Cosa Nostra and has a huge income from the European drugs trade.
It has grown stronger, the report said, despite a string of arrests following the murder of a prominent local politician two years ago.
The secret services said the organisation had succeeded in infiltrating large areas of the local economy including the construction, health and tourist sectors, as well as the huge business centre on the major container port at Gioia Tauro.
