BAGHDAD (AP):

The jailed journalist who threw his shoes at United States (US) President George W. Bush has asked for a pardon for what he described as "an ugly act", a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister said yesterday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader. He remained in custody last night.

"It is too late now to regret the big and ugly act that I perpetrated," al-Zeidi wrote in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the prime minister's spokesman.

The spokesman, Yassin Majid, told The Associated Press that al-Zeidi went on in the letter to recall an interview he conducted with the prime minister in 2005 when al-Maliki invited him into his home, saying: "Come in, it is your home too."

"So I ask for your pardon," al-Zeidi wrote, Majid said.

Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, can issue pardon if recommended by the prime minister, except for certain offences including international crimes, according to Iraq's constitution.

Iraqi officials had said al-Zeidi would probably be charged with insulting a foreign leader, a relatively minor offence.