An Italian nun and her bodyguard who were shot dead in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, by unknown gunmen at the weekend may have been the victim of a backlash against the Pope following comments he made on Islam last Tuesday.

|PIC1|According to the latest reports, Sister Leonella Sgorbati, 65, was shot four times in the back by the attackers in a children's hospital in the south of the city before they fled the scene.

She was a fluent Somali speaker and one of the longest-serving foreign members of the Catholic Church in Somalia, a former Italian colony.

Witnesses said they believed that the nun had been killed as a retaliation for a speech made by the Pope in which he quoted the thoughts of 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

Reports stated that she was taken into surgery in the Austrian-funded SOS Hospital in Huriwa district but died from her injuries.

One witness of the shooting said: "These gunmen are always looking for white people to kill. Now the Pope has given them a reason for them to do their worst."

A spokesman for the Vatican has condemned the killing of the nun, calling it "a horrible act" which he hoped would remain isolated.

Yusuf Mohamed Siad, security chief for the Union of Islamic courts (UIC) which controls Mogadishu, said two people had been arrested.

He has since expressed his regret for the outrage that his comments caused by stopped short of offering a full apology.

A statement was read out Saturday by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone which stated: "The Holy Father sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful.

"In reiterating his respect and esteem for those who profess Islam, he hopes they will be helped to understand the correct meaning of his words ... quickly surmounting this present uneasy moment," the statement said.

With no effective central government in Somalia, the capital Mogadishu remains an extremely dangerous place for the aid workers brave enough to remain.