Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, shot and wounded after being freed in Iraq, said Sunday US forces may have deliberately targeted her because Washington opposed Italy's policy of dealing with kidnappers.

She offered no evidence for her claim, but the sentiment reflected growing anger in Italy over the conduct of the war.

Speaking from her hospital bed where she is being treated, Sgrena told Sky Italia TV it was possible the soldiers had targeted her because Washington opposes Italy's dealings with kidnappers that may include ransom payments.

"The United States doesn't approve of this (ransom) policy and so they try to stop it in any way possible."

The US military says the car was speeding towards a checkpoint and ignored warning shots. But according to Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera, the driver, an unidentified Italian agent, said: "We were driving slowly, about 40-50 km/h."

In a report in the Rome-based Il Manifesto newspaper yesterday, she recalled the shooting, and said the car had come under a "hail of bullets" less than a kilometer from the airport.

US troops had opened fire although the driver had radioed them to inform them of their passage.

While under fire, she recalled comments made by her kidnappers during her four-week captivity who had said: "There are Americans who do not want you to come back," Sgrena wrote without giving further details.

Although Italy has denied paying kidnappers in past hostage releases, Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno told the Corriere that "very probably" a large ransom had been paid in this case.

"We need to get the guilty punished and an apology from the Americans," Alemanno said. A national outpouring of grief and anger put pressure on Berlusconi, an ardent supporter of Bush in the Iraq War, to get answers from Washington.

"All 57 million Italians who were united in the anticipation of Giuliana Sgrena's liberation have the right to know what happened," said Romano Prodi, the former prime minister.

(China Daily March 7, 2005)