The Kurdish separatist leader, Abdullah Ocalan -- who's under house arrest in Italy -- has said he is prepared to testify about the attempt to kill the Pope in 1981, and the unresolved murder in 1986 of the then Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme.

In a newsagency interview with the Italian agency ANSA, Mr Ocalan accused the then Turkish military government of collusion.

He said he had no formal proof, but alleged that Ali Agca -- the man convicted of trying to kill the Pope and jailed for life in Italy -- was among prisoners linked to nationalist movements whom Turkey had freed to carry out what he called special tasks.

Mr Ocalan dismissed as fabricated, suggestions that his guerrilla movement, the PKK, was involved in the Palme killing.

In a separate interview, the PKK leader welcomed Italy's proposal that an international court try him.

However, he said such a tribunal would have to establish who was to blame for the deaths of thousands of people during the long war between the Kurdish separatists and the Turkish government.