ROME (AFP) - A Nigerian woman resident in Italy was hospitalised on Tuesday with symptoms that have led doctors to fear she may be the country's first case of someone contracting the Ebola virus.

The woman, who had recently returned from a visit to Nigeria, has been hospitalised in Ancona and was undergoing tests in a specialist unit to establish whether she has contracted a virus which has killed more than 2,000 people since the start of the year, a spokesman for the local authorities in the Le Marche region.

"She is presenting with symptoms that could be those of Ebola," he said.

West Africa has been hit this year with the worst outbreak of Ebola ever seen. Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have been the countries worst affected. There have been eighteen confirmed cases in Nigeria to date, which have resulted in seven deaths.