Rough ride for US official

The United States assistant secretary of state, Thomas Pickering, has been given a hostile reception at the annual conference in Washington of the biggest grassroots Arab-American organisation.

Mr Pickering's speech to some five hundred delegates of the American Arab Anti-Discriminatory Committee was frequently interrupted, and he was jeered when he said United Nations sanctions against Iraq should remain in place.

Mr Pickering had to leave through the kitchen of the hotel conference centre. The U.N. secretary general, Kofi Annan, was due to address the congress later.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service