Germany's Justice Ministry is sounding out U.S. authorities over whether they would be willing to cooperate with legal proceedings against suspected CIA agents sought in the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen, an official said Thursday.

The ministry sent a formal legal request over the warrants issued by German prosecutors earlier this year, a ministry spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity. Such requests are a common first step in dealing with international arrest warrants, she said.

Munich prosecutors issued warrants for the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents at the end of January, accusing the unidentified suspects of wrongfully imprisoning Khaled al-Masri and causing him serious bodily harm.

The Justice Ministry received the warrants in March and sent its initial request to Washington about two weeks ago, the spokeswoman said.

Al-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, maintains that he was abducted in December 2003 at the Serbian-Macedonian border and flown by the CIA to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was abused.

He says he was released in Albania in May 2004, and that his captors told him he was seized in a case of mistaken identity.

Human rights campaigners have focused on al-Masri's story in pressing the United States to stop flying terrorism suspects to countries other than the U.S. where they could face abuse — a practice known as "extraordinary rendition." In a separate case, Italy also has issued arrest warrants for alleged CIA agents.

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