ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari left here on Wednesday without talking to journalists who had been invited to an early morning 'press conference' by the embassy of Iraq at the hotel where he was staying.

It was only on arrival at the hotel that journalists were informed that the press conference had been cancelled. The reason cited by Iraqi diplomats for the last-minute cancellation was that their foreign minister's departure had been advanced.

However, the foreign minister did not leave till mid-day. A large number of journalists who had turned up for the press conference decided to wait in the lobby for the minister, hoping that he would take a couple of questions or give a brief statement before his departure.

However, when the foreign minister showed up after a long wait of almost three hours, he dashed straight towards his limousine and refused to take any question.

His security and protocol personnel shouted "no, no" and stopped journalists from going near him. When journalists protested that they had been waiting for him since 9am, the minister just smiled, said 'sorry' and carried on.

Notably, the Pakistan foreign ministry had no clue about the planned press conference. Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan who were present at the hotel for a breakfast meeting with the visiting Sri Lankan foreign secretary were surprised to learn about it, saying that they had not been informed by the Iraqi embassy.

The standard protocol is that when a visiting foreign minister decides to hold a Press conference the host foreign ministry is informed about it and he is joined by his counterpart.

The word around was that the press conference was called off at the last moment due to 'American intervention' after the killing of 19 US military personnel in Baghdad a day before.