A Swedish journalist was shot and killed in the Somali capital while attending a mass demonstration organized by the Islamic courts union that seized the city this month after fierce battles.

Witnesses said an unknown gunman shot the journalist, identified in Stockholm as Martin Adler, 47, in the chest at close range at a rally in south Mogadishu where some 4,000 Islamists were demonstrating in support of the courts, underscoring security concerns.

The killing came less than 24 hours after Somalia's largely powerless transitional government and the increasingly powerful courts signed a mutual recognition and truce agreement in talks in Sudan.

Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman Nina Ersman said, "We have identified the man as Martin Adler, a photographer and Swedish citizen."

Adler worked as a freelance reporter, photographer and cameraman for, among others, Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet and Britain's Channel Four television, his employers said.

"Martin Adler was one of the most experienced war correspondents in Europe and the world," Anders Gerdin, editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, said in a statement published in the paper's website. Aftonbladet, which the journalist was on assignment for, also confirms his age as 47.

"He was shot and killed while attending the rally," said Mohamed Amin, a Somali journalist who was at the scene. "He died on the spot."

A second witness said a gunman had shot Adler near the heart in deliberate fashion, shortly after the journalist had snapped several still photographs of demonstrators, and that the crowd had scattered in panic.

"It was not an accident," the witness told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity citing security fears. "It was an intentional murder by someone who wanted to kill a journalist."

The chairman of the Islamic courts union, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, condemned the killing, saying he was personally very upset.

"It is barbaric and we will punish those responsible," he told AFP. "I send my condolences to the family of the deceased, his nation and the agency he was serving."

"We will take serious action on this matter," Ahmed added. "Those who did this are not responsible people and they don't represent the people of Mogadishu, the Islamic courts or the Somali people."

Photographs of the dead reporter showed him covered in a bloody white shirt being carried by onlookers at the rally.

Adler, whose body was taken to Bamadir Hospital, was believed to have arrived in Mogadishu about a week ago, according to witnesses and staff at the Shamo Hotel where he was staying with two colleagues.

"He was down there for us and he was going to file reports," Thomas Sundgren, an Aftonbladet editor, told AFP in Sweden. "He was also a prized photographer. We are very, very shocked of course."

Adler, an experienced war reporter who won the prestigious Rory Peck Award in 2004 for excellence in hard-news coverage by a freelance journalist for his work in Iraq, was married and had two children.

"Martin Adler's death in Somalia is a terrible tragedy," said Tina Carr, director of the Rory Peck Trust in London that administers the award. "He was a true brave freelancer whose pictures and stories shed light on some of the most dangerous situations in the world.

Mogadishu has been under the control of militia loyal to the city's Islamic courts since June 5 when they seized most of the capital, ousting a US-backed warlord alliance after four months of fighting that killed more than 360 people.

The situation has been tense with anti-western sentiment running high since. Demonstrators at Friday's rally burned the flags of the United States and Ethiopia, which the courts accuse of backing the warlords.

The killing was the first of a foreign journalist in Mogadishu since BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot dead outside a hotel on February 9, 2005.

It highlighted insecurity in the capital that has forced the country's transitional government to base itself in the provincial town of Baidoa, northwest of Mogadishu.

The United States, which had backed the defeated warlord alliance, accuses the Islamists of harboring terrorists, including members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

The United Nations, African Union and United States all hailed the accord but Somalis, weary of numerous failed attempts to restore peace since their country descended into anarchy in 1991, expressed skepticism.

The Khartoum talks were the first mediation effort between the government and the Islamists, who now control large parts of southern Somalia, including the capital after the worst fighting the country has seen since 1991.

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