Security experts have warned of a new Trojan being spammed out disguised as a bogus BBC News report claiming that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been killed by terrorist.

Dloadr-ALM arrives attached to an email purporting to come from bbc.italy2006@bbc.com.

The email, which claims that Berlusconi has been killed by an Israeli soldier, can have a variety of subject lines including 'Berlusconi la morte', 'Berlusconi di terrorismo', 'Berlusconi Tragedia', and 'Berlusconi di omicidio'.

The attached files are called necfotos.zip, which contains an image of Berlusconi (silvio01.gif), and a malicious PIF file (silvio02.pif).

"The news report is of course false. Signor Berlusconi is very much alive, and launching the file will not show you a picture of the former Italian PM, but instead execute malicious code on your Windows PC," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"Hackers are exploiting the public's interest in politics, current events and breaking news to spread malware. Anyone unfortunate enough to run this program risks allowing hackers to gain access to their computer to spy, steal and cause havoc."

"This latest attack appears to be currently targeted at Italian computer users, however it could spread its wings using other disguises in the future."