ROME - Premier Silvio Berlusconi said today that he disagreed with some of the U.S. military's conclusions into the March shooting death of an Italian agent in Baghdad, but he said those differences won't affect Italy's deployment of troops in Iraq or its friendship with Washington.

Berlusconi told lawmakers that it couldn't be ruled out that U.S. troops who fired on the agent's car from a checkpoint were to blame even if they fired mistakenly.

"Indeed, the lack of deliberate action doesn't rule out blame attributable to negligence, imprudence or even simple incompetence," Berlusconi told lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies three days after Italy issued its own report concluding that soldiers' inexperience, stress and fatigue played a role in the fatal shooting.

The U.S. report into the death cleared the soldiers of any blame. It said the car was speeding, didn't heed warning lights and shots, and said better coordination between the Italians and Americans could have prevented the tragedy.

The slain agent, Nicola Calipari, was escorting a freed hostage, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, to the airport.

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam's prime minister announced today that he plans to become the communist country's highest-ranking leader to visit the United States since the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago.Phan Van Khai told reporters that he will travel to Washington at the end of next month, but it was not yet clear who he would meet with there."Thirty years has passed since the end of the war; this is the first-ever visit by a leader of a unified Vietnam to the United States," said Khai.Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam said they could not confirm the trip, and Vietnam's Foreign Ministry declined to provide details.Khai's comments came a day before U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was expected to visit Vietnam to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the former foes.By The Associated Press