ISTANBUL, April 1: Police in five states across Europe detained 53 people on Thursday in coordinated dawn raids against Turkey's biggest far-left militant group, and Greece arrested another man suspected of links with the organisation.

Security forces in the Philippines also arrested four Turkish nationals suspected of having ties with international "terror groups", but a military spokesman there said there was no link with the European operations.

A Turkish interior ministry official said 37 people were detained in Turkey and 16 more were held in swoops in Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, targeted at Turkey's Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

"The operations were carried out in cooperation with the other forces," the official said. The DHKP-C, also know as Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left), is against the United States, NATO and the Turkish establishment and has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in Turkey. It has no known links to radical Islamic groups.

Prosecutors in the central Italian city of Perugia said they coordinated an early morning, pan-European operation against DHKP-C after an 18-month investigation. Five people were arrested in Italy - two Turks and three Italians - and further arrest warrants were issued for suspects living elsewhere.

Turkey's NTV television identified one of those arrested as the link man between the organisation in Turkey and in Europe. The report could not be immediately confirmed.

"As far as we know there are no connections with Islamic terrorism, but this is only the beginning of the investigation and we have a lot to learn," prosecutor Nicola Miriano told a news conference.

Italian police said they tapped 56,000 hours of phone calls that revealed links between the Turkish group and Italian anti-capitalist militants. -Reuters