Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also said he saw no cause for alarm.

"We have alerted everyone who could have been alerted, and what we are hearing back from the secret services, the police and the paramilitaries is reassuring," Berlusconi said.

"It seems that there is no reason for concern, besides what we already knew about, that there is a terrorist organisation in our country."

Other Italian officials were critical of the United States for issuing the statement and accused it of playing into the hands of terrorists.

Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino told La Repubblica newspaper that the U.S. Embassy statement "could cause panic even if unintentionally. ... I think the decision to release it was unfortunate and inopportune."

Milan public prosecutor Gerardo D'Ambrosio said: "I think it's a mistake to keep on banging the drum over this sort of thing. It's just what the terrorists want."

Gabriele Albertini, the mayor of Milan, also criticised the U.S. statement.

Security has been stepped up at Duomo Cathedral in Milan
"There is no need for alarmism," he said. "There is no concrete evidence of a threat."

Former Italian ambassador Sergio Romano, writing in the newspaper Corriere della Sera, said: "If terrorism is aimed at creating insecurity then yesterday's (U.S.) statement risks gifting al Qaeda a partial victory without a shot being fired."

===========================================================

They have a diametrically opposite policy in Italy to downplay such things. They have a lot of history, and perhaps a lot more experience too.