A protester who presented himself as an Iraqi journalist in exile has hurled a shoe at the colleague who a year ago found fame by throwing his own footwear at then-US president George W Bush.

Television reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi was in Paris to promote his campaign for the "victims of the US occupation in Iraq" when a fellow Iraqi critic turned the tables on him, shouting: "Here's another shoe for you."

The thickset man with an Iraqi accent made a brief speech in Arabic during the question-and-answer session, defending US policy and accusing Mr Zaidi of "working for dictatorship in Iraq", before throwing his shoe.

The shoe was thrown hard at Mr Zaidi's head, but he managed to dodge it and it bounced harmlessly off a curtain erected behind the speakers by the event's hosts, the Foreign Press Welcome Centre in Paris.

Mr Zaidi's brother grappled with and slapped the man, whom witnesses later described as an asylum-seeker they know only as Khayat, before venue staff and bystanders separated them and the aggressor was hustled away.

"When I used this method, it was against the occupation. I did not use it against a compatriot," Mr Zaidi said.

"I always knew the occupier and his lackeys would stop at nothing to get to me."

Following the commotion, the news conference continued with Mr Zaidi taking questions about his famous assault on Mr Bush on December 14 last year, which was shown around the world and made him a hero in the Arab world.

Mr Zaidi, a journalist for Iraq's Al-Baghdadia television, threw his shoes at Mr Bush during the US leader's final visit to Iraq, protesting the six-year-old occupation with a cry of: "This is the farewell kiss, you dog."

The 30-year-old member of Iraq's Shiite majority was jailed for nine months and was flown out of Iraq by his employers shortly after he was freed.

Asked about the huge sums and even offers of marriage made by admirers during his jail term, Mr Zaidi said he had asked his family to refuse all gifts "until I find a way that they can be passed on to the people of Iraq".

- AFP