Bush issues regrets to Italy over death
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-08 09:44

US President Bush offered Italian officials fresh regrets Thursday over last month's shooting death of an Italian intelligence officer in Iraq by U.S. troops.

Bush, accompanied by former President Clinton and the first President Bush, conferred with the officials ahead of funeral services for Pope John Paul II. The shooting incident that upset many Italians was still being investigated, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Bush stayed out of public view on the eve of the first papal burial rites attended by a U.S. president.

Bush, Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush paid a courtesy call on Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and had dinner with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

They also met with a group of U.S. Catholic leaders for Friday's funeral, including 11 American cardinals who will participate in electing a new pope.

Relations between the United States and Italy were strained last month when U.S. troops in Iraq fired on a car rushing an Italian journalist to freedom, killing an Italian intelligence officer and wounding the reporter.

Berlusconi denounced the attack. Shortly thereafter, he announced plans to start to draw down his country's 3,000-strong contingent in Iraq in September, although he said the two events were not related.

At the dinner with Berlusconi, the leaders discussed the shooting, McClellan told reporters. The Italian prime minister had pressed for a discussion of the incident.

"The president reiterated our regret over the incident. There's a joint investigation that continues," McClellen said.