(ANSA) - Brasilia, November 5 - Ex-terrorist Cesare Battisti said on Thursday that he was ''just a trophy'' to the Italian government, which is fighting for his extradition from Brazil.

A week ahead of a Brazil supreme court hearings to decide whether to hand Battisti over, he told ANSA that ''Fascist ministers'' in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government wanted to claim him as a ''prize''.

Battisti named Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa as one of many ''sworn enemies'' who had ''personal and ideological reasons'' for wanting him in an Italian prison.

''I risk my life if I go back to Italy,'' said Battisti, who expressed fears of ''vengeful'' police and prison guards awaiting him upon his return.

''I'll end up getting hanged in my cell as soon as the media loses interest,'' he said, adding that in the meantime he'd be locked away in isolation.

Battisti said he hoped the Brazil supreme court would consider his concerns before coming to a decision.

Should the court rule to extradite him, he said he trusted President Inacio Lula da Silva to overturn the decision and reinstate asylum status granted in January by the justice ministry.

''I think he's hoping that the supreme court will make the decision for him, but I have confidence in Lula''.

According to coverage in Sao Paolo daily Estao de S. Paolo, Lula is disinclined to see Battisti extradited, but also hopes to avoid an open conflict with the Brazilian judiciary.

TERROR VICTIM OUTRAGED BY REMARKS.

Battisti also said he had come to terms with the son of a jeweler he is accused of killing in 1979, Pierluigi Torregiani.

Alberto, who was 13 at the time, was also shot in the attack leaving him paralyzed from the waste down.

While he admitted on Thursday to contacting Battisti, he vehemently denied the ex-terrorist's claims that the two had made amends.

''He's just a windbag,'' said Torregiani. ''I have a lot more respect for the attackers who admitted to pulling the trigger and did their time in silence than for Battisti, who's done nothing but hide''.

According to Battisti, Torregiani concealed their correspondence for fear of losing his terror victim pension.

''Battisti keeps saying he's innocent and that he has the evidence to prove it, but he's never said what it was,'' said Torregiani, who has volunteered to testify against the him before the Brazil supreme court.

The ex-terrorist's remarks also drew angry retorts from government officials, including La Russa, who said ''Battisti can have my attention once he's in an Italian jail''.

Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was ''nauseated by the delirious ramblings of a convicted murderer trying to moralize with the victims of terrorism''.

''The Italian government doesn't want a trophy, just a bit of justice for those who've suffered,'' Meloni said.

Battisti, 54, was convicted in absentia of four murders committed by a leftist militant group in the 1970s.

He was arrested in Brazil in March 2008, some four years after he had fled to that country to avoid extradition to Italy from France, where he had lived for 15 years and become a successful writer of crime novels.

In January, the Brazilian justice ministry granted Battisti political asylum on the grounds that he would face ''political persecution'' in Italy.

The ruling outraged the Italian government who demanded that it be appealed to the Brazilian supreme court.

After splitting evenly on Battisti's asylum request during a first hearing in September, the court is scheduled to reconvene on November 12.

Photo: Battisti