According to the UK's Financial Times, Italian investigators have a list of 390 Liechtenstein bank accounts, which they suspect have been used for the purposes of tax evasion, after receiving information from the tax authorities in the United Kingdom. It is believed that the sums of money held in these accounts range from EUR200,000 up to EUR400,000.

The information provided by the UK dated back to 2002, and currently it is unclear whether the account holders may have already declared, and lawfully repatriated, their offshore assets in one of the numerous tax amnesties instigated by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Italy has since imposed a major crackdown on tax evasion under Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left government.

The Italian media began reporting last week that several high profile celebrities, business people and politicians, including one Senator, were on the list. However, the authorities may have to race against time to conclude their investigations with the statute of limitations - currently set at seven-and-a-half years - which is due to expire soon.

Meanwhile, France's Budget Minister Eric Woerth has informed a French parliamentary committee that the government is preparing to commence "in-depth fiscal investigations" into 20 families and individuals in the coming days.

Woerth also revealed that there would be a second wave of investigations targetting 64 groups or individuals featured on a list of around 200 entities which are known by the government to have transferred in the region of EUR1 billion to Liechtenstein.

This second French investigation will also be based on a tip-off from the UK tax authority, which is understood to have paid GBP100,000 for a list of Liechtenstein account holders to the same informant - reportedly an ex-employee of LGT Bank - who sold information to the German intelligence services, sparking a global tax evasion investigation.