Italy Offers Asylum to Christian Convert

"I say that we are very glad to be able to welcome someone who has been so courageous," Berlusconi said, when asked by Associated Press Television about the possibility of asylum for Abdul Rahman. The premier spoke ahead of a Cabinet meeting in which the government was widely expected to grant asylum.

Rahman, 41, was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of the capital late Monday after a court dropped charges of apostasy against him for lack of evidence and suspected mental illness. President Hamid Karzai had been under heavy international pressure to drop the case.

Muslim clerics condemned Rahman's release, saying it was a "betrayal of Islam." They threatened to incite violent protests.

Conversion is a crime under Afghanistan's Islamic law. Rahman was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible, and he was brought to trial last week for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The jailing of Rahman inspired an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI to Karzai and efforts by the United Nations to find a country to take him.

Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, who has been pushing for a solution to Rahman's plight, said Tuesday the matter was on the agenda of Wednesday's Cabinet meeting. Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu has described Rahman's situation as "one of those classic cases in which political asylum is usually granted."

Italy has close ties with Afghanistan, whose former king, Mohammed Zaher Shah, was allowed to live with his family in exile in Rome for 30 years. The former royals returned to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime a few years ago.

Italian troops were sent into Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2001 to help with reconstruction.

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