(ANSA) - Paris, August 22 - A former member of Italy's far-left Red Brigades terrorist movement has been arrested in Paris, the French justice ministry said on Wednesday.

    Marina Petrella, 53, was taken into custody after being stopped by traffic police on Tuesday in a northern Paris suburb, the ministry said.

    Petrella was convicted by an Italian court in 1992 of the 1981 murder of a police officer. She is also wanted for other crimes, including kidnapping and armed robbery.

    She has been living in France for almost 20 years.

    In October 2006, Italy issued an extradition request for Petrella and 11 other former far-left militants living in France.

    The French justice ministry said a court in Versailles near Paris would examine the extradition request for Petrella.

    The Red Brigades, Italy's most infamous far-left terrorist group, spread terror in the 1970s and 1980s. Their most notorious act was the murder of Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978.

    Some 140 former Italian terrorists are currently at large and about 100 of them are believed to reside in France.

    Italy has requested the extradition of several of them but up until recently, France had always refused to act on such requests.

    One of the most prominent cases was that of former leftist militant Cesare Battisti, who settled in Paris in 1990 and went on to become a successful writer of detective novels.     

    Battisti is the ex-leader of the 1970s leftist terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) and is wanted in Italy for four murders committed in the 1970s.

    Italy's request for his extradition made front-page headlines in France, with French leftwing parties and liberal newspapers rallying to support the former terrorist's battle to remain in Paris.

    Battisti went missing in France in August 2004 while awaiting the outcome of his appeal against extradition and later turned up in Brazil, where he was arrested last March.

    Italy is now seeking his extradition from Brazil.