A car exploded in northern Italy early on Thursday, killing the 33-year-old Kuwaiti driver in what police said appeared to be more of a suicide bid rather than an attack on a nearby synagogue.

"We think we're dealing with a suicide...It was more of an act of desperation than a subversive one," a policeman in Modena, northern Italy, told Reuters. "The man had shown uneasiness and problems relating to people in the past."

Jordanian-born Al Catib Muhammad Shafir Ammay, who had Kuwaiti citizenship, set himself on fire about 5 a.m. (0400 GMT). Police approached, and the car, which ran on flammable liquid propane gas (LPG), exploded, police said.

No one else was hurt. The blast blew out windows and garage doors of nearby buildings. Police said the car was parked on a small, side street about 50 to 80 meters (yards) from the synagogue's main entrance.

Italy stepped up security after a suicide bomber killed 19 Italians in southern Iraq last month. Italy has sent troops to Iraq to help U.S.-led stabilization efforts there following the war to oust Saddam Hussein.

Security alerts were also raised around Europe following four suicide bomb attacks in Turkey in November, two of which hit synagogues. Sixty-one people were killed in those attacks, claimed by shadowy groups linked to the al Qaeda network.

Police had beefed up security around the Modena synagogue following those attacks and the recent desecration of a cemetery in France amid reports of a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.

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