A London auction house on Tuesday withdrew a number of ancient Roman artefacts thought to have been stolen from Italy in the 1970s that were due to go under the hammer on Wednesday.

Bonhams made a last-minute withdrawal of 10 lots worth a total of 250,000 euros following an official request by the Italian Embassy in London that no lost Italian treasures go on sale from the former collection of British antiquarian Robin Symes.

''We're always happy to cooperate to avoid the sale of objects that should not be sold,'' said Bonhams chief Robert Brooks, adding that he would nevertheless have preferred more than 24 hours' warning about the Italian government's concerns.

Roman fresco fragments, busts, statues and vases are among 600 items in the auction catalogue.

Earlier on Tuesday, Italian art police chief Gianni Nistri said nine lots in particular had been marked as probably ''coming from thefts or illegal digs'' during the 1970s.

The move by Bonhams to withdraw the lots came a week after former Italian culture minister Francesco Rutelli sounded the alarm about the auction and hit out at his successor, Sandro Bondi, for ''not taking sufficient action'' to safeguard the artefacts. Rutelli revealed that he had begun secret negotiations in May 2007 to return hundreds of Italian works in the massive collection, but said negotiations had recently ground to a halt.

The former minister said Tuesday he was ''satisfied'' by Bonhams' decision.

Bondi meanwhile said he did not wish to enter into ''petty squabbles'' with Rutelli, but underlined that Italian cultural diplomacy ''was not on hold''.

''I have not let my guard down,'' he said. ''These are controversial issues which require patience and effort. I'm doing everything I can to reach a positive conclusion''.

ITALIAN TEAM DISCOVERED STOLEN ARTEFACTS.

Symes, whose collection comprises some 17,000 items, was a leading international antiques trader in the 1970s - a decade in which tomb raiders were particularly active in Italy.

As one of the main dealers for museums, he handled a number of high-profile artefacts including the Morgantina Venus, a 5th century BC Greek statue of Aphrodite that the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is due to return to Italy in 2010.

Italian prosecutors in the ongoing trial of former Getty curator Marion True and an American antiquities dealer, Robert Hecht - who are accused of knowingly acquiring smuggled artefacts - also investigated Symes' ties to the pair, as well as those with Rome-based dealer and trafficker Giacomo Medici.

No charges were brought against Symes.

When liquidators were brought in in 2005 following the failure of Symes' business, an Italian team was asked to help certify the authenticity of certain works in the collection, estimated to be worth around 160 million euros.

It examined some of the collection's 33 warehouses and discovered vast numbers of artefacts it alleged had been stolen from Italian sites.

Rutelli campaigned hard to have stolen Italian antiquities in museums across the world returned to Italy during his stint as culture minister, successfully negotiating deals with the the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Getty.