Iraqi parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said angrily on Wednesday that he may resign after lawmakers argued over the journalist who threw his shoes on visiting President George W. Bush, a lawmaker said.

"There was chaos and arguments erupted in the parliament in today's session over whether the journalist should be convicted or set free from detention," Umer Abdul Sattar, a lawmaker from the Iraqi Accordance Front, a major Sunni block told Xinhua.

He said that Mashhadani was upset when he closed the session saying "I end the session and I am resigning."

"I am not sure how serious Mashhadani was, but he was so angry after the Kurdish bloc walked out and some of the Shiite alliance lawmakers follow suit," Sattar said.

The speaker's announcement came as Muntadhar al-Zaidi, a reporter of Cairo-based Baghdadia Iraqi television, appeared before an investigating judge earlier in the day.

Late on Tuesday, Udai, brother of Zaidi, told Xinhua that his detained brother had called him by telephone and told him that he "will appear at an Iraqi court in the Green Zone in Baghdad."

Zaidi, 29, was immediately wrestled to the ground by security guards on Sunday night after throwing his shoes on Bush and since then he was being held by Iraqi security forces for interrogation and he was also being tested for alcohol and drugs.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2008)