Italy and UK attempt to play down row over hostage rescue

Italy and UK have attempted to play down the row over the Nigerian rescue attempt, despite Italian officials previously branding the lack if information from the UK as a "slap in the face".

Italian diplomat Antonio Puri Purini said the Italian public could be expected to feel a sense of "humiliation" after the way events played out, and accused Britain of acting with an air of superiority.

It has emerged that Italian officials were only informed of the Nigerian rescue attempt after it was underway.

Writing in the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Antonio Puri Purini claimed Britain's nostalgia for its imperialist days had led it to act alone.

Building firm contractors, Britain Chris McManus and his Italian colleague Franco Lamolinara died as Nigerian troops and UK Special Boat Service (SBS) commandos tried to end their nine months in captivity.

It is understood the men's captors killed the colleagues before they could be reached by the rescue team.

The bid to rescue the men was apparently brought forward because the kidnappers - believed to be members of a jihadi group associated with al Qaida - became aware that the net was closing around them.

There were reports of a fierce firefight after the house in the north-western town of Sokoto was surrounded.

A Downing Street spokesman hit back at suggestions by the Italian government they did not consent to the failed rescue mission.

The spokesman said Prime Minster David Cameron did not offer any apology for the way in which the mission unfolded.

An investigation into the rescue mission will be handled by the Nigerian authorities.