See the video of the alleged sighting in Sicily

FBI agents searching for one of the world's most wanted fugitives are in London talking to Scotland Yard after a man resembling him was videoed in Europe.

James J Bulger is being hunted in connection with 18 counts of murder, as well as charges relating to drugs distribution and money laundering.

The Irish-American gangster, listed as among the FBI's 10 most wanted, vanished in 1994 and a $1 million reward has been posted by the bureau for information leading to his arrest.

Agents are currently liaising with police forces across Europe in a bid to check whether a couple photographed in Taormina, Sicily, on April 10 this year are Mr Bulger and his female companion Catherine Greig.

The FBI website says Mr Bulger, now 78, was involved in murders between the early 1970s and the mid 1980s due to his leadership of an organised crime group that controlled extortion, drug deals and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

"He has a violent temper, and is known to carry a knife at all times," the FBI's website adds.

The alleged sighting in Sicily is believed to have reinvigorated a theory within the FBI that Mr Bulger is based in Europe, and has connections in London.

In January 2003, the bureau announced that it had found a safe deposit box in the Piccadilly branch of Barclays Bank, which it claimed belonged to the gangster, and contained $50,000.

At the time, William Chase, the acting special agent in charge of the Boston office of the bureau, told The New York Times newspaper that agents who discovered the box found it had listed Mr Bulger's brother, William M. Bulger, the former president of the University of Massachusetts, as a contact person.

The FBI admitted that before the discovery, the bureau had information that "there was a possibility of a safe-deposit box" in London "for at least several years". He is also believed to have safety deposit boxes in Ireland, Florida and Canada.

Mr Bulger was allegedly last seen in the capital in September 10, 2002, when a businessman reported spotting a man looking similar to him at the Meridian Hotel, in the city.

In a new video being displayed on the FBI website today, a man resembling Mr Bulger, also known as 'Whitey,' is seen walking with a younger woman in Sicily sporting a cap and dark glasses, and looking into shop windows.

Howie Carr, the author of a book on the fugitive, told the New York Daily News: "He's pulled a Michael Corleone - he fled to Sicily just like the Godfather."

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said that officers had met with the FBI yesterday and had discussed Mr Bulger.

"We can confirm that following a request from US authorities an officer from the Metropolitan Police Service Extradition and International Liaison Unit met with the FBI yesterday and at the meeting James Bulger was discussed.

"The MPS are not providing any active assistance to the US investigation."

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