* Explosions in Swiss, Chilean embassies, two injured
* Rome mayor says "wave of terrorism" against embassies
* One injured man was working in Swiss embassy mailroom
* Swiss say no claim of responsibility
(Adds quote from interior minister, EU embassy in Berne)
By Daniele Mari
ROME, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Italian police checked foreign embassies in Rome on Thursday after two people were wounded in separate explosions at the Swiss and Chilean missions that the government suggested could be the work of anarchist groups.
There was no claim of responsibility but the incidents bore similarities to an episode in Greece last month in which far-left militants sent parcel bombs to foreign governments and embassies in Athens.
"We think this is the right track," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said during the taping of a television talk show due to be broadcast later on Thursday.
"Greece, Italy and Spain have seen the presence of anarcho-insurrectionalist groups that are tightly linked," he said. "They are very violent."
The two victims were working in the mailrooms of their embassies when the packages blew up in their hands, seriously wounding the Swiss man, who was rushed to hospital. The Chilean employee was less seriously hurt.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini condemned the incidents, which he said were a serious threat to diplomatic missions in Rome, but he urged caution and warned against alarmist reactions.
Analysts said that based on early reports, leftist or revolutionary groups appeared the most likely suspects rather than Islamist militants, despite warnings this month that al Qaeda was planning attacks in the United States, Britain and Europe around Christmas.
"It will probably be a couple of days before more information emerges. But it doesn't look like a typical jihadist thing. It looks more like the act of a leftist, fringe group," said Stephan Bierling, professor of International Politics at Regensburg University in Germany.
A Greek police official said they had so far not received any request for help from Italian police. He said Greek authorities had stepped up checks of parcels at airports across the country following the attacks in Italy.
HEIGHTENED SECURITY FEARS
Bomb disposal experts searched the Swiss embassy offices but staff remained in the building following the incident, which occurred at around midday (1100 GMT).
Fire fighters conducted checks of the Chilean embassy, in the same prosperous neighbourhood, after the explosion of the package the size of a document but left in late afternoon.
A source in the Rome prosecutors office said the packet in the Chilean embassy had been sent from Italy, while the packet in the Swiss embassy had been completely destroyed.
Other inspections were carried out at foreign missions across the Italian capital.
"We are reviewing our security posture in Rome in light of incidents today," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.
A suspect package was found at the Ukrainian mission as well but the embassy later said no dangerous items had been found.
The explosions came at a time of tension in Italy, highlighted last week by an anti-government student protest that descended into some of the worst street violence in Rome for many years.
There was no indication of any link with Thursday's explosions but the timing heightened suspicions that far-left militants might be trying to exploit growing discontent with spending cuts around Europe caused by the financial crisis.
"Given the similarities with the recent parcel bombs in Greece following anti-austerity protests, this could be a copycat incident by domestic activists," said Samantha Wolreich, European risk analyst at advisory firm AKE.
Chilean ambassador Oscar Godoy said there had been no indication that an attack was likely.
"This is an absolutely irrational and brutal act of terrorism," he told reporters.
The explosions follow the discovery of a rudimentary device in an empty underground train in Rome on Tuesday. However, police said that it lacked a detonator and tests showed it contained no explosive. (Additional reporting by Antonella Cinelli, Massimiliano Di Giorgio, Roberto Landucci and Catherine Hornby in Rome, Sven Egenter in Zurich, Olzhas Auyezov in Kiev, William Maclean and Peter Apps in London, Ingrid Melander in Athens; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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