Police say they have arrested an Italian man in a crackdown on an Islamic extremist network suspected of supporting international terrorism.

Alfonso Polverino, an anti-terrorism police official in Cagliari, Sardinia, said the man was arrested early Monday in Pesaro, an Adriatic sea town.

Polverino told Sky TG24 TV that the man, not immediately identified, was suspected of training Islamic extremists.

Italian news reports said the suspect, a factory worker who converted to Islam, was about to travel to Morocco.

Monday's operations grew out of the arrest in March in Brescia of a Moroccan suspected of plotting an attack against a Milan synagogue.

Police were reportedly searching for several suspects, including an Italian professor who allegedly translated al-Qaida-inspired texts on the Internet.