A Milan court will hear arguments on January 9 on whether to try CIA and Italian agents on charges of kidnapping a terrorism suspect in Milan and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured, a court source said on Monday.

Prosecutors want to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, and six Italians, including the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency.

Prosecutors believe the CIA agents, with help from SISMI, grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street in February 2003, bundled him into a van and flew him out of Italy from a U.S. airbase.

Nasr, an Egyptian also known as Abu Omar, says he was tortured by Egyptian agents under questioning there with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

Italian Judge Caterina Interlandi must decide if there is enough evidence for a trial.

If so, it would be the first criminal trial in the world over so-called "renditions", one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's global war on terror.

Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries, but denies torturing suspects or handing them to countries that do.

Italy's prime minister at the time, Silvio Berlusconi, has publicly denied knowledge of any kidnapping plot.

A high-ranking SISMI suspect says the CIA wanted the agency to help it abduct the imam but that he declined.

One suspect, an Italian police officer, has admitted he stopped Nasr and helped CIA agents grab him.

But he says the CIA told him the goal was to recruit -- not abduct -- the Muslim cleric. He also says he was told the U.S. and Italian governments sanctioned the operation.

Beyond the 32 suspects accused of kidnapping the imam, another three suspects, all Italians, also face lesser charges of aiding and abetting.