Bush's 'icy smile' enraged shoe-thrower

An Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush said in the past he had videotaped himself practising the Arab insult to use against the president whose "icy smile" had filled him with uncontrollable rage.

Muntazer al-Zaidi said yesterday at the start of his trial in Baghdad on charges of assaulting a foreign leader that he took a recording of his shoe-throwing training two years ago and had hoped to accost Bush in Jordan but this did not take place.

Zaidi, who was hailed across the Middle East by critics of the Iraq invasion and who also called Bush a "dog", told the court he had acknowledged making a training film under interrogation after his arrest at a Baghdad news conference.