LYON, France -- INTERPOL has agreed, following discussions with the Italian government, to allow security officials from international organizations and regional institutions to connect to its new I-24/7 global communications network to alert one another and police about suspicious parcels or imminent terrorist attacks.

Italian authorities have taken the lead in the investigation of a series of parcel bombs believed to have been mailed from Italy to European institutions and officials in recent weeks. INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble travelled to Rome for discussions with Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu and the Head of Italy's National Police, Giovanni De Gennaro, on how INTERPOL can utilize its network of 181 member countries and its global communications system to further protect people and property from terrorist attacks.

For the first time, INTERPOL will now allow security personnel in international organizations and other institutions to use its state-of-the-art I-24/7 network to send security alerts to each other, and to INTERPOL National Central Bureaus and police in the countries where they are located.

The system will enable security officials to have real-time sharing of information on security threats. It could also be used to provide additional security information, including electronically transmitted photographs of suspect packages and letters.

'The I-24/7 communications system possesses the flexibility to permit security officials in selected institutions to share information about potential threats without giving them access to INTERPOL's police databases containing confidential or sensitive information and intelligence,' INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said.

INTERPOL's I-24/7 global communications system provides the capacity to instantly reach law enforcement contact points around the world. INTERPOL also has in place a 24-hour-a-day Command and Coordination Centre operating at its General Secretariat in Lyon in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.

Mr. Noble said he hoped to convene as soon as possible an international meeting of security officials and senior representatives of international organizations to further enhance co-operation between INTERPOL and such organizations in order to fight terrorism and prevent disaster and loss of lives.

The Secretary General thanked the Italian minister and the head of the Italian police for their proactive approach to the new security problems that emerged after the parcel bombings, and for their cooperation with INTERPOL.