Victor Emmanuel, 66, laid a wreath at the scene of the 1944 massacre, in retaliation for the deaths of 33 German soldiers at the hands of Italian resistance fighters.

The former heirs to the Italian throne were last year allowed to return to their homeland after a 56-year exile was lifted. They had been banished because of the collaboration of King Victor Emmanuel III with the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.

Victor Emmanuel III in 1938 co-signed and promulgated racial laws that led to the deportation of Italian Jews.

His grandson Victor Emmanuel last November publicly expressed his regret at these laws being signed, but has rejected calls to make a formal apology.

Claudio Fano, a prominent member of Italy's Jewish community whose father was among those executed in the Ardeatine massacre, said Victor Emmanuel's visit to the scene of the atrocity was "an alibi by people not mature enough to perform true acts of repentance."

Victor Emmanuel and his son were scheduled to return Sunday to Geneva, their usual home until now, but were expected to continue visiting Italy regularly and find a home there.

Victor Emmanuel and his 31-year-old son had to formally renounce the throne and pledge allegiance to the republic that replaced the monarchy before the parliamentary process was set in motion that ended their exile.

An Italian court last year rejected an appeal by convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, sentenced to life in 1998 for the 1944 Ardeatine caves massacre.

Priebke, the court ruled, had acted as a foreign citizen representing the German army in the interests of a foreign state in the worst massacre of civilians in Italy during World War II.

The 90 year-old former SS captain was sentenced to life behind bars by a military court in Rome, but was released in 1999 on health grounds and has since lived under house arrest here.

WAR.WIRE