The remains of a prominent Italian banker, Roberto Calvi, who was at the centre of a huge financial scandal, are being exhumed at a cemetery near Milan today.

Pathologists want to establish the cause of death of Mr Calvi, who was found hanging from a bridge in London sixteen years ago.

The exhumation of his body was ordered last year after four men were charged with conspiracy to murder Mr Calvi.

The BBC correspondent in Rome says that Mr Calvi, who was chairman of Italy's largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano, had close links both toorganised crime and the Vatican.