Trieste, Italy - Police in Italy have arrested 11 Nigerians suspected of running a prostitution ring in which dozens of women from Nigeria were brought to Italy illegally, news reports said Thursday.

The suspects were picked up in several north-eastern cities including Venice, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Bergamo and Trieste, from where the investigation began, the ANSA news agency reported.

Police were acting on a tip-off from authorities in neighbouring Slovenia, who had discovered several Nigerian nationals in possession of forged documents.

Trieste, Italy - Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday joined his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini in laying a commemorative wreath for the victims of a former World War II Nazi death camp near the north-eastern Italian port of Trieste.

Steinmeier was in Trieste Tuesday as part of a summit including talks between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.