(Adds U.S. reaction, detail and background) By Phil Stewart ROME, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A Rome judge ordered a U.S. soldier to stand trial for killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005 while he was escorting a freed hostage to safety, court officials said on Wednesday. Mario Lozano, of the U.S. Army's 69th Infantry Regiment, was charged with voluntary homicide for shooting Nicola Calipari at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport. Lozano will almost certainly be tried in absentia. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said it was "a fair assumption" the U.S. military would not hand over Lozano for trial. "As far as the Defense Department is concerned, we and the Ministry of Defence in Italy consider this a closed matter," Whitman said. Both countries have called the death an accident. Italy's independent prosecutors disagreed and Judge Sante Spinaci granted their request to charge Lozano also on two counts of attempted murder -- one for the other Italian agent driving the vehicle and the second for the freed hostage inside. Calipari became a national hero in Italy for securing the release of kidnapped left-wing journalist Giuliana Sgrena. He died trying to shield her from gunfire at a U.S. checkpoint shortly after her release. His widow Rosa, now a member of the Italian Senate, said at the hearing in a criminal court she was "satisfied". "This is the first step in a long process. I hope we will eventually have justice," she said. Sgrena told reporters: "We don't want to make Mario Lozano the scapegoat, but we want to find out who was responsible and have justice." The trial will begin on April 17. Lozano, of the New York Army National Guard, was the gunner at the U.S. checkpoint on the road to Baghdad airport. TWIN CASES The case is running parallel to another high-profile Italian judicial probe threatening to embarrass Washington and Rome. A Milan judge is considering whether to put 26 Americans, mostly CIA agents, on trial on charges of kidnapping a Muslim terrorism suspect in Milan in 2003 and flying him to Egypt. The prisoner says he was tortured by authorities there. The Calipari shooting and Milan kidnapping are the biggest cases involving U.S. personnel here since a low-flying U.S. Marines jet cut an Italian ski lift cable, killing 20 people in 1998. The United States later cleared the pilot of manslaughter. The shooting increased the unpopularity of then premier Silvio Berlusconi's decision to support the United States in Iraq. He eventually decided to withdraw Italian troops but was ousted from office after losing a general election last year. Rosa Calipari has denounced Washington for exonerating Lozano and Berlusconi's government for accepting that it was an accident. Rome did, however, criticise the U.S. military for placing inexperienced troops at a poorly organised roadblock. Lozano's Italian defence lawyer Fabrizio Cardinali said the decision surprised him: "He (Lozano) was carrying out his duty, which is something that the judge did not consider relevant." After Lozano tried to signal to Calipari's car with a spotlight, then by aiming a green laser pointer at the windshield, the U.S. report said he fired warnings shots before opening fire on the vehicle. Sgrena, who was wounded in the shooting and spent 24 days in hospital, said she was seeking damages from Washington. (Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Washington)
