Czech Republic president Vaclav Klaus, made famous in a viral internet clip showing him pocketing a ceremonial pen in Chile, was not taking any chances of souvenirs being found in his pocket at Parliament House on Tuesday.

The president, in Canberra to address the National Press Club, was on his way for an interview with ABC1's 7.30 - which has its Canberra studio within the House - and through the security checkpoint.

Waiting for him there was Michelle Ainsworth, mild-mannered producer for 7.30, ready to usher him up to the ABC studio where reporter Chris Uhlmann was already seated at the desk, lights on, cameras focused.

But going through security with all the plebs was not on Mr Klaus's agenda. Ainsworth takes up the story.

"As soon as he saw the security device he stopped and said: 'I'm not going through there'," Ainsworth told ABC News Online.

"So I told him that everyone goes through. To which he repeated he wasn't going to go through.

"I told the security guard that he is the Czech president here for an interview, but he doesn't want to go through the metal detector.

"The guard's reply was blunt and to the point: 'I don't care who he is, everyone goes through'.

"So I told the president there were no exceptions. He replied, 'I will not go through. I'm leaving. I'm going back to my hotel. If you want to interview me you can do it there'.

"He didn't even say goodbye. He just left."

All that was left was for Ainsworth to return to the studio where Uhlmann still waited under the hot television lights, the sweat beginning to trickle down his neck.

"He won't come up," Ainsworth reported.

"Why not?" Uhlmann asked.

"He wouldn't go through security."

"Why not?"

"He just wouldn't go though."

And so that was that.

Back in April, on a visit to Chile, Mr Klaus was taped pocketing a ceremonial pen set with lapis lazuli gemstones in a video that went viral within hours.

Later he said he "takes things all the time".

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He said he had a pen from a NATO summit in October and a notepad from the Latvian parliament.

"It is what people do regularly. They keep notepads and pens from such events," he said.

But back in the Czech Republic, the clip inspired a Facebook campaign in which the public was asked to contribute to a special collection for him.

Mr Klaus, an economist who is sceptical about climate change and the environmental movement, is on a private speaking tour of Australia organised by the Institute of Public Affairs.

The president spoke earlier at the National Press Club outlining his concern about what he calls the global warming doctrine.

"I consider [it] a new dangerous doctrine as a new attempt to control and mastermind my life and our lives," he said.