By Stuart Grudgings

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A government report on Friday sought the indictment of 226 people, including politicians and top police officers, for involvement in violent militias that control swathes of Rio de Janeiro's slums.

The report by a commission of Rio's state legislature said militias made up largely of corrupt police and firefighters control at least 170 areas in the Brazil's third most populous state.

The militias began by offering residents protection from drug gangs but now run illegal businesses such as supplying cooking gas, transport and cable TV. They have become part of Rio's violence problem, adopting similar tactics of intimidation and extortion to those used by gangs.

"They are composed of state agents and have infiltrated the state apparatus, so in this sense they are more threatening (than drug gangs)," Marcelo Freixo, the commission president, told Reuters.

Freixo, who says he has received death threats, took a lead role in investigating organized crime in 2003 after his brother was killed violently.

Among those accused of militia involvement is the former chief of Rio's civil police, Alvaro Lins, who was arrested in August on charges of forming armed gangs. Seven city councilors were also on the list.

Most of the others named in the report have already been arrested.

"I think the state doesn't have a plan to cope with the militias," said Ignacio Cano, a professor at Rio State University who has studied the militias.

"The most important thing would be to devise a plan to regain the citizenship and the control of the lives of the people who live in these areas."

Among the report's more than 50 recommendations are that firefighters lose the right to carry guns and that a special phone line be set up for residents to denounce militias.

The report, the result of a five-month investigation, will be sent to the police, the federal government and rights group Amnesty International.

Militias started appearing in Rio in the 1970s, often taking the form of death squads. The last few years have seen a surge in their presence, something many blame on some senior officials, politicians and the media for initially encouraging them to combat the drug gangs. (Additional reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier) (Editing by Xavier Briand)

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