According to an US Navy official, two US women sailors were shot dead and a third sailor wounded in their barracks in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on Monday but the US Navy said it did not appear to be a terrorist act.

The shooting, which occurred at around 5 am (0200 GMT) in the US base east of the capital Manama, is being investigated, the navy said, adding that the facility had been closed for an hour after the shooting.

Two sailors were pronounced dead at the scene and the third was taken to a local hospital for treatment. A spokeswoman for the Fifth Fleet said the two dead personnel were women.

The military said it would not disclose the names of the victims until the next of kin had been informed.

News of the double-shooting had raised fears the sailors were victims of a terror attack.

Bahrain earlier this month charged four nationals with belonging to a banned organization, the Al-Qaeda network, following reports that a cell was plotting attacks against US targets.

Three of the suspects are due in court on Tuesday, while a fourth remains at large outside Bahrain.

The small Gulf archipelago has been designated by Washington as a major non-NATO ally and also has a free trade agreement with the United States.

But it has become a focus of anti-American demonstrations over the past few years with police using tear gas to disperse around 300 demonstrators protesting outside the US embassy in Manama at the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin in 2004.

The government in Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled country with a Shiite majority, has introduced tough new anti-terror laws despite strong opposition from local rights groups.