Tunisians Abel Ben Mabrouk bin Hamida Boughanmi, 39, and Mohammed Tahir Riyadh Nasseri, 43, were "the subject of outstanding arrest warrants in Italy and will be prosecuted there," a Justice Department statement said.

Both men were flown from the remote U.S. Navy base to a Milan airport, and then put into immediate custody.

A Justice Department announcement said the two men were sent under an agreement negotiated in September between Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Italy's justice minister, Angelino Alfano.

"I believe it is the first time since January of this year in which detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo to a foreign nation for prosecution purposes," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said.

Boyd would not confirm an Il Messaggero report that yet another Tunisian at Guantanamo, Abdul Bin Mohammed Ourgy, 44, was covered by the same transfer agreement.

A third Guantanamo detainee was relocated to France, and a fourth to Hungary, the Associated Press reported, citing a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the release.

Guantanamo prisoner Saber Lahmar, one of five Algerians ordered freed by a U.S. judge for lack of evidence, arrived in Bordeaux, France, early today, his Boston-based lawyer Robert Kirsch confirmed.

The identity of the detainee being transferred to Hungary was not immediately available. The Washington Post said he was a Palestinian.

The Milan daily Corriere Della Sera said an Italian magistrate sought the extraditions of the two Tunisians for international terror investigation and ultimately trial for criminal association, aiding illegal immigration and other crimes.

They allegedly were linked to a group that both engaged in drug trafficking and "recruited people for martyrdom in countries at war" between 1997 and 2001, the newspaper said.