The veterans were initially planning to hand the letter of protest to Italian Ambassador Rossella Franchini Sherifis, but she declined to receive them.

The letter was eventually handed to the consul, who said the ambassador would forward it to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

The controversial photo depicting an Italian Fascist squad executing five Slovenian hostages during an Italian military operation in 1942 was used several times over the past years to a reverse effect.

It was first used in February 2011 on a poster for a ceremony remembering WWII executions of Italians and then on the web page of the Italian Interior Ministry in a reverse context - illustrating the violence of Yugoslav partisans over Italians after WWII.

But despite popular outrage and several protests, Italian public broadcaster RAI used the photo in the same context in February this year on a late-night TV show Porta a Porta.

About 20 people attended the peaceful rally in front of the embassy today, carrying banners "Fighters for Freedom - Partisans are not bandits" and "Mister Napolitano - tell your people the truth".

Their letter of protest meanwhile calls on Napolitano to put an end to the abuse of the photograph with which "Italy tries to revise history and play a victim". They also expect the Italian president to work on informing the Italians about the events during the Second World War.