KABUL - IT will likely rank as one of the more bizarre episodes of his presidency - George W. Bush, surely one of the most protected leaders in history, ducking as two size 10 shoes hurtled in his direction.

The US president laughed off the incident during a surprise visit to Iraq, although it highlighted the lingering hostility still felt toward the man who ordered the 2003 invasion of the country.

'I didn't know what the guy said, but I saw his sole,' Mr Bush quipped later, not the first - and he won't be the last - to rack up a shoe pun.

The footwear belonged to an Iraqi television journalist, Muntazer Al-Zaidi, who jumped up as Mr Bush was holding a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

'It is the farewell kiss, you dog,' he shouted, and threw the shoes before being wrestled to the ground by security guards and frogmarched out.

Mr Bush lowered his head and the first shoe hit the American and Iraqi flags behind the two leaders. The second was off target.

Television footage of the incident quickly went round the world.

Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture - after Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many people beat its face with their soles.

'It doesn't bother me,' Mr Bush said of the incident. 'If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw.' He later played down the incident. 'I don't know what the guy's cause is... I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it.'

The US leader then flew to Afghanistan, telling reporters en route that it reminded him of an incident in April 2006, when a heckler from the Falungong spiritual movement interrupted a formal arrival ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao in the grounds of the White House.

'Look, I mean it was just a bizarre moment,' Mr Bush said, 'but I've had other bizarre moments in the presidency.

'I remember when Hu Jintao was here. Remember we had the big event? 'He's speaking, and all of a sudden I hear this noise, had no earthly idea what was taking place, but it was the Falungong woman screaming at the top of her lungs. It was kind of an odd moment.'

So when the president landed in Kabul for talks and a news conference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, the buzz among reporters was whether more footwear would fly.

It didn't.

One Afghan reporter jokingly urged a television colleague to follow suit - 'Why don't you do it here? Come on, do it.' Many journalists however had not heard or seen of the incident just a few hours earlier.

And while security is always tight at Mr Karzai's palace, where visitors have to undergo a number of checks, no one's shoes were examined this time.

Meanwhile Al-Baghdadia, the television channel that employs Mr Zaidi, urged authorities to release him immediately 'in line with the democracy and freedom of expression that the American authorities promised the Iraqi people.' In Cairo, programming director Muzhir al-Khafaji described Zaidi as a 'proud Arab and an open-minded man'.

'We fear for his safety,' he added.

Mr Bush, who has strongly defended the 2003 invasion that triggered years of deadly insurgency and sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,200 US troops, rejected suggestions Mr Zaidi represented the Iraqi people as a whole.

'I don't think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say, this represents a broad movement in Iraq,' he added.

'I don't think it would be accurate.'

Praise for Bush
Mr Bush thanked US forces for their service in Iraq at a rally of about 1,500 cheering troops inside Saddam's old al-Faw palace at the sprawling US military base of Camp Victory.

'The surge is one of the greatest successes in the history of the US military,' Mr Bush said, referring to the decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last year.

Mr Bush held talks with President Jalal Talabani and Mr Maliki during the visit. Talabani called Mr Bush a great friend of the Iraqi people 'who helped us to liberate our country'.

Mr Maliki, who had a strained look on his face after the shoe-throwing, praised Mr Bush: 'You have stood by Iraq and the Iraqi people for a very long time, starting with getting rid of the dictatorship.' The US-Iraq security pact, which replaces a UN mandate governing the presence of foreign troops, has its critics in Iraq, some of whom doubt the United States will live up to its promise to withdraw.

'We reject this visit, as it occurs at a time when Iraq is still under the US occupation and the US army has the upper hand in controlling the security situation,' said Mr Ahmed al-Massoudi, a spokesman for the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

'This visit is a show of force.'

Though Iraq has slipped down the list of Americans' concerns as the recession-hit US economy has taken centre stage, polls show most people think the war was a mistake.

It will now be left to Mr Obama, a Democrat and early opponent of US military involvement in Iraq, to sort out an exit strategy after he takes office on Jan 20.

About 140,000 US troops will still be in Iraq nearly six years into a war that has killed more than 4,200 American military personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Daylight landing
Mr Bush was greeted on the heavily guarded tarmac in Baghdad by the top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

The decision to land in broad daylight reflected confidence that Baghdad was more secure this time than in Mr Bush's last visit to the capital in 2006 when sectarian violence was raging.

Until Air Force One touched down, Mr Bush's trip was conducted in strictest secrecy. The presidential jet was rolled out of its giant hangar only after everyone was on board. Journalists' electronic devices, from cellphones to iPods, were confiscated.

Mr Bush, dressed casually and wearing a black baseball cap after his night-time getaway from the White House, made a rare appearance in the press cabin just before takeoff.

'Nobody knew who I was,' he joked when an aide complimented him on his disguise. -- REUTERS, AFP