The US troops who fired at the car carrying a freed Italian journalist in Iraq and killed an Italian agent last Friday were deployed to provide security for US Ambassador John Negroponte who was to travel that same road.

"The mobile patrol was there to enhance security because Ambassador Negroponte was expected through," the Washington Post on Friday quoted a US embassy official in Baghdad as saying.

The official also confirmed a report in Wednesday's edition of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica which first disclosed that theUS Army unit had established the checkpoint to provide security for the ambassador.

Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed in the shooting. Giuliana Sgrena, the journalist who had just been released after being held for a month by Iraqi kidnappers, and another Italian intelligence agent who was driving the car to Baghdad airport were wounded.

Sgrena has said it is possible they were targeted deliberately because the US opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers, an accusation the White House has denied.

The US military has said its forces had warned the driver of Sgrena's car, which they said was traveling at high speed approaching a checkpoint, before they opened fire.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday that the killing of Calipari was being investigated and promised that the US would cooperate closely with the Italian government in this case.

Source: Xinhua