The report, filed from the Iraqi-Syrian border, said Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko suffered a slight injury to his arm in the attack.

"The Russian ambassador to Iraq Vladimir Titorenko thinks that the column of Russian cars, filled with diplomats and journalists, was deliberately attacked by the Americans," RIA Novosti wrote.

Russian news reports had earlier said that the convoy was carrying Russian flags as it was leaving Baghdad.

The state-run news agency said that four cars in the convoy had been hit in the attack and that US M-16 bullet casings were found in the vehicles.

The report further accused US forces of trying to stop the Russian convoy for inspections several times, "but these attempts were thwarted by the Russian diplomats."

In a later interview with ITAR-TASS news agency, Titorenko said US forces had shot at his convoy although the Russians had agreed on a time and route for their evacuation from Baghdad with the US authorities.

"When we left Baghdad at a time and following a route agreed with the Americans, a column of US tanks, armored troop carriers and mobile artillery blocked our way," Titorenko said.

"Our convoy, headed by my car and carrying Russian flags, stopped, but they unexpectedly opened fire," he added.

"All our attempts to come out of our cars to explain the situation were met by rounds of machine gun fire," Titorenko said.

A senior US official in Washington conceded that US troops probably fired at the Russian diplomats but suggested that Iraq set up the incident by changing the convoy's planned route.

According to eyewitness accounts, the convoy was caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi soldiers although the reports were not clear as to which side fired first.

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice assured President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Monday that if US troops had indeed shot at the convoy, then no harm had been intended, a senior US official said.

But the official stressed this did not mean Washington accepted that US forces were to blame.

Titorenko and other Russian diplomats previously posted in Baghdad arrived in Damascus Monday.

A Russian emergencies ministry plane flew out to Syria early Monday to pick them up.

SPACE.WIRE