Italy sees no "extra" threat to the Turin Winter Olympics because of Muslim anger at allegedly blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

"We have weighed the latest information from the Italian Interior Ministry and raised our security level but we can see no extra threat apart from some groups' plans to demonstrate," Turin Prefect Goffredo Sottile said on Tuesday.

"We have not received any specific signals regarding Torino 2006," Sottile added, stressing that Italy had put in place an " unparalleled" security apparatus for the Games.

Security forces will be on maximum alert during the opening ceremony on Friday night - attended by, among others, the U.S. First Lady Laura Bush and the British premier's wife Cherie Blair - and the closing ceremony on February 26, the prefect said.

Sottile said checks on every person attending the Games would be "meticulous."

The Italian Interior Ministry on Monday warned Olympic officials to "be on their guard" against possible fallout from the firestorm sparked in the Muslim world by the Danish newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The ministry stressed there had been "no specific" threats.

Sottile, the Turin prefect, did not identify the groups he cited as planning demonstrations - but several Italian Muslim groups have protested about the cartoons.

In its latest report, issued Tuesday, the Italian secret service said there was no evidence of terrorist plans to attack Italy during the Games.

But it said there might be "demonstrative" actions by anarchist groups, some of them from Spain.

Italian Interior Minister Beppe Pisanu said "Our security level is the highest possible."

A total of 15,000 people will protect the February 10-26 Games, including Italian army units.

Some 2,500 soldiers, about 1,000 of them from anti-aircraft artillery regiments, will help the police ward off potential threats.

Many of the soldiers are already patrolling and protecting the Olympic sites.

Italy forged an accord with Switzerland to make sure the Turin area is safe from air threats.

Source: Xinhua