Mr. Andreotti was prime minister of that coalition when Aldo Moro, a fellow Christian Democrat leader, was kidnapped in March 1978 by the Red Brigades, a left-leaning terrorist group.

WSJ: Italy's Seven-Time Premier Andreotti Dies at 94

As former Italian President Francesco Cossiga first exposed in a letter to Corriere della Serra in August 2008, in the early 1970s then Italian prime minister Aldo Moro signed a deal with Yassir Arafat that gave the PLO and its affiliated organizations the freedom to operate terror bases in Italy.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Hamas rises in the West

The so-called historic compromise between Christian Democrats and Communists planned in 1978 foundered not only because of the dramatic kidnapping and subsequent murder by Red Brigades terrorists of the former Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro, but also because of long maintained Cold War vetoes by the United States against letting communists into government in Rome.

BBC: Optimism greets Italy's grand coalition