WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A toddler squeezed through the White House gates on Thursday evening, causing a brief security lockdown on Pennsylvania Avenue and amusing White House reporters awaiting late-breaking news on Iraq.

"We were going to wait until he learned to talk to question him, but in lieu of that he got a timeout and was sent on way with parents," Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan said in a statement provided to White House reporters.

Secret Service agents regularly close off the area due to suspicious packages near the White House, but pint-sized intruders are far less common.

(Reporting by Rebecca Elliott and Annika McGinnis; Editing by Ken Wills)