The Iraqi journalist who became a star in the Arab world when he hurled his shoes at visiting US President George W Bush and called him a dog, appeared before a judge on Wednesday, his brother said.

Durgham al-Zaidi said he and another brother were told by the investigating judge that 29-year-old Muntazar al-Zaidi "had cooperated well," but gave no details.

Under Iraqi law, Zaidi faces up to seven years in jail for "offending the head of a foreign state."

Durgham al-Zaidi said his brother had been taken to Ibn Sina hospital in the heavily fortified Green Zone after being badly beaten by security guards and suffering a broken arm and ribs, as well as injuries to an eye and a leg.

He was unable to say whether Muntazer had sustained the injuries while being overpowered during Sunday's protest or after his arrest.

There was no immediate information about the journalist's condition on Wednesday.

muntazer al zaidi george w bush shoe thrown incident iraq 171208 03 Zaidi grabbed the world's attention on Sunday when he threw his shoes at Bush during the US leader's farewell visit to the country which was invaded by US-led forces in 2003.

He jumped up during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and shouted: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog," and threw two shoes at the US leader.

Bush ducked both shoes and Zaidi, who works for private Iraqi television station Al-Baghdadia, was wrestled to the ground by guards after the action, regarded as the supreme mark of disrespect in the Muslim world.

White House: No hard feelings

The White House said on Tuesday it was for Iraqi leaders to decide whether to punish Zaidi, but that it had laid the incident to rest.

"I think the president believes that Iraq is a sovereign country, a democratic country, and they will have a process that they follow on this," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"The president harbours no hard feelings about the incident. We've really moved on."

Asked if Bush would support pardoning Zaidi, she said: "Well, see, that would be in Prime Minister (Nuri al-) Maliki's bailiwick, and I don't know what their constitution says about pardon."

Perino, who herself was sporting a bruise on her face from the shoe throwing, sought to downplay the incident.

muntazer al zaidi george w bush shoe thrown incident iraq 171208 04 "I don't think that you can take one guy throwing his shoe as representative of the people of Iraq," she said. "I know that there are people in Iraq who are angry, angry at their situation. It's been a very rough five years."

But she said Maliki and other Iraqi journalists "apologised on behalf of the Iraqis, saying this is not how they would treat a guest."

The US State Department said Tuesday it would issue a condemnation if it were true that Zaidi had been beaten up.

"Well, obviously, we condemn any kind of unnecessary force used against the reporter. I don't know that that happened," deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

Zaidi's action won him widespread plaudits in the Arab world where Bush's policies have drawn broad hostility, although Iraqi reaction was mixed.

In Iraq's parliament, Baha al-Araji, an MP with the Shiite movement headed by radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, demanded an inquiry into the "brutality" of the security guards.

But Sami al-Askari, a Shiite lawmaker close to Maliki, lashed out at Zaidi for what he branded a "shameful act which sullies the reputation of the media."

TV station offers job to journalist

The Lebanese television channel NTV , known for its opposition to Washington, went as far as offering a job to the journalist.

In its evening news bulletin on Monday, it said that if he takes the job, he will be paid "from the moment the first shoe was thrown".

A manager at the channel told AFP that it had made its offer known to Zaidi and was ready to post bail on his behalf.

An Iraqi lawyer said Zaidi risks a minimum of two years in prison if he is successfully prosecuted for insulting a visiting head of state.

muntazer al zaidi george w bush shoe thrown incident iraq 171208 01 In Gaza, around 20 Palestinian gunmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, a hardline militant group that has been behind a spate of rocket attacks on Israel in recent weeks, staged a demonstration in support of Zaidi.

Wearing fatigues and brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles, they stamped on photographs of the US president and held banners in support of the journalist.

Egyptian independent daily Al-Badeel carried a frontpage caricature of the US flag with the sole of a shoe replacing the stars in the top corner.

Even government-owned newspapers in Cairo praised Zaidi's actions. "Pelting the American president with shoes was the best way for expressing what Iraqis and Arabs feel toward Bush," wrote Al-Gomhuria editor Mohammad Ali Ibrahim.

In Iraq, press comment was divided.

The pro-government Al-Sabah newspaper expressed concern about the potential impact on press freedom of what it called Zaidi's "abnormal individual behaviour".

But the independent Al-Dustur newspaper hailed the journalist as the "only Iraqi whose patriotic feelings made him express his opinion in this way".

"It is not a declaration by the Iraqi media only, but for all Iraqis who have suffered over the years and we demand that he not be handed over to US forces," the paper said.

- AFP