by Ned Parker
BAGHDAD - US forces shot and wounded Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and killed an Italian secret service agent who tried to protect her, darkening celebrations over the end of her one-month hostage ordeal.
The US ambassador to Rome was summoned to the office of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who said there were "disquieting questions" about the friendly fire incident late Friday. US President George W. Bush later called the prime minister to express his regrets, the White House said, pledging a full investigation into the shooting.
Sgrena, 56, underwent surgery after the shooting as she was being driven to a US base, her newspaper, Il Manifesto, said.
According to the US military, the vehicle carrying Sgrena and the agent was travelling at high speed toward a checkpoint and the soldiers who fired on it waved their hands and arms, flashed white lights and fired warning shots in a failed attempt to get it to stop.
"When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others," the 3rd Infantry Division said in a statement.
Another military statement said the car had been travelling in Baghdad "at a high rate of speed" as it approached a checkpoint.
The Italian news agency, ANSA, said two other Italian secret service agents were wounded.
Berlusconi, who called on US ambassador Mel Sembler to explain the shooting, said 50-year-old secret service officer Nicola Calipari died trying to protect Sgrena from bullets fired by the US soldiers at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport.
"Several shots hit the car," said Berlusconi. "One man was mortally wounded by a bullet. We are petrified and dumbfounded by this fatality.
"It is a pity. This was a joyful moment which made all our co-citizens happy, which has been transformed into profound pain by the death of a person who behaved so bravely," the prime minister added.
Italy has 3,000 troops in the US-led coalition in Iraq and the death will cast a new shadow over the prime minister's support for the United States.
In Washington, the White House said Bush called Berlusconi from Air Force One "to express his regret about the incident that occurred earlier today.
"The president assured prime minister Berlusconi that the incident will be fully investigated."
State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan said "this incident will be investigated fully."
The journalist was kidnapped February 4 outside a Baghdad mosque by an Iraqi group who called on Rome to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
Il Manifesto, a left-wing daily which opposed the US invasion in March 2003, said Sgrena underwent surgery on her lungs but that her life was not in danger.
"There's little to say. The Americans nearly killed her," Sgrena's companion, Pier Scolari, was quoted as saying by ANSA.
US troops had just officially changed over in Baghdad, with the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division taking over a week ago from the 1st Cavalry Division, which had been stationed in the capital for almost a year.
Spain has already withdrawn its soldiers from the coalition, the Ukraine and Netherlands are to follow and Poland has said it will start to reduce its contingent.
A Bulgarian soldier was killed Friday in the south of Iraq while returning to base from a patrol, the Bulgarian defense ministry said. He was the eighth Bulgarian to be killed while serving in Iraq.
In other developments, Iraq's main political factions continued haggling Friday over formation of a new governing coalition more than a month after historic January 30 elections.
The main Shiite and Kurdish alliances were locked in negotiations over a new cabinet and Kurdish conditions for their support.
A Western diplomat warned that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, a loose amalgam of religious and secular factions, risked unravelling if the talks dragged on too long.
The alliance wants to name a prime minister to lead a transitional government. But the Kurds are demanding the presidency for one of their two main leaders, Jalal Talabani.
They also want Shiite support for their claims to the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kikkuk.
"There are almost daily meetings and they are going to be intensified," said Hussein Shahrastani, a senior Shiite politican and confidant of the majority community's spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Shahrastani said there was hope for a deal within a few days.
Meanwhile, outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose list came third in the landmark January 30 election, said he was still interested in leading a government and one small party bolted the winning Shiite political list.
The defection of the tiny National Coalition Movement from the alliance could help Allawi, whose hopes rest on splitting the Shiite list and then cutting a deal with the Kurds.
There was no letup in insurgent violence in Sunni Arab areas, which largely boycotted the election.
An Iraqi civilian was killed and three wounded in a car bomb explosion in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, police said.
A police chief was shot dead near the southern city of Diwaniyah, according to the Polish military which patrols the area.

03/05/2005 02:04 GMT