The Vatican said yesterday it was "following the situation" after the murder of the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Turkey was described as a ritual Muslim sacrifice.

After decapitating Bishop Luigi Padovese a week ago, his driver Murat Altun, 26, reportedly shouted from the roof of the victim's house that he had killed the "great Satan", adding Allah Akbar ("God Is Great"), a Turkish journalist told the news agency AsiaNews on Tuesday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, contacted by the religious news agency I-media, said he was awaiting clarification of the report describing the murder as a ritual Muslim sacrifice but would neither deny nor confirm it.

Speaking yesterday, the Vatican spokesman said he had no information but added that the Vatican was "obviously following the situation".

The 63-year-old Italian bishop, vicar apostolic of Anatolia since 2004, was killed in the garden of his summer house in a Mediterranean seaside town near Iskenderun, close to the Syrian border.

Turkish news reports said Mr Altun had been released from a psychiatric ward a few days before the murder.

His lawyer said Mr Altun said he had had a divine revelation before committing the murder.

Pope Benedict XVI said shortly afterward that it was "certainly not a political or religious murder but rather a personal affair".

Turkish authorities also ruled out a political motive.

The murder followed a series of attacks on Christian priests in Turkey that have fuelled concern of rising hostility against non-Muslims in the predominantly Muslim EU-hopeful country.

Bishop Padovese's funeral is set for Monday in his native Milan, northern Italy.