Italy's highest court has accepted a complaint over the wire-tapping of the president as part of an inquiry into negotiations between state officials and the Mafia, Italian media reported on Wednesday. President Giorgio Napolitano asked the court in July to force prosecutors in Sicily to destroy recorded conversations he had with one of 12 people accused of dealings with the Mafiosi behind some of Italy's most notorious killings.

The recording was made as part of an investigation into an alleged deal between the state and the Mafia to end a spiral of violent attacks, including the car-bomb murders of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. "It was not up to the Palermo prosecutor's office to evaluate the importance of the transcripts of the president's telephone conversations," the judges of the Constitutional Court were quoted as saying in their ruling on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have requested 12 people stand trial in the case - six Mafia bosses and six people who were working for the state at the time. Among them is Marcello Dell'Utri, an ally of scandal-ridden ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi. Napolitano's conversations with former interior minister Nicola Mancino were recorded as part of the investigation - an act the president insists is illegal because the head of state has full judicial immunity.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012