Turkey has signalled that it might be willing to compromise on its demand that Italy hand over the Kurdish separatist leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

A Turkish government spokesman Ahat Andican told Reuters news agency that if this didn't happen -- and Italy has said it won't hand him over -- then Mr Ocalan should be prosecuted for terrorism in a third country such as Italy or Germany.

Italy has been pressing Germany to act on an arrest warrant it has long had out on Mr Ocalan for incitement to murder.

But a senior member of Germany's governing Social Democrats, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Hans-Ulrich Klose, has said Germany should not do this, incase it leads to violence within the large Turkish immigrant community, which includes Kurds.