BEIRUT - The Last Salute to President Bush is the new book by Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who in a heated Baghdad moment threw his shoes at the former US leader, a move that has since been copied by angry political activists around the world.

Al-Zeidi, a former reporter for al-Baghdadiya television, said his book is meant to convey the story of the Iraqi people: from the first Gulf War in 1991 to the crippling sanctions that followed and the US invasion which brought a new wave of problems.

But it is also about his personal ordeal, including the alleged torture he underwent in detention in Baghdad following the shoe throwing incident, which took place as George W Bush was standing next to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"I know the people who tortured me while I was in prison, one by one. They broke my teeth, broke my leg and my nose," he said, in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa.

He has since filed a lawsuit against al-Maliki in a Swiss court, saying that his alleged torturers all answered directly to the premier.

"I have written all their names in my book, and soon they will all be called by court to be punished," al-Zeidi said confidently.

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog," he yelled in Arabic as he threw his shoes on December 14, 2008, during Bush's final trip to the country. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

The president ducked as the Iraqi premier tried to catch the footwear.

"I didn't have much time to reflect on anything, I was ducking and dodging," Bush recalled shortly after the incident.

Activists in several countries mimicked al-Zeidi's idea and within a short amount of time, world leaders had one additional worry.

Even Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao saw a shoe come his way while making a speech at Cambridge University.

"My book also lists the moments that led me to throw my shoes... at Bush during the Baghdad press conference," al-Zeidi said in Beirut, where he now works for a local satellite channel.

The Iraqi journalist has officially released and signed his book at Beirut's Book Fair this week, because he wanted it to coincide with the second anniversary of the shoe throwing incident.

Al Zeidi quickly became a hero in some quarters of the Arab world and among anti-war activists. Iraqi officials were less amused, and described it "as shameful." Some journalists present apologized to the visiting US leader who tried to brush off the incident.

"I just wrote what I felt when I saw Bush at the joint press conference with Nuri al-Maliki, so the reader will know what exactly prompted me to carry out what I did," he said.

"When I saw Bush something trembled inside my body and I felt anger ripping my whole body, all I could see then are the massacres this man has committed against my people," the Iraqi journalist wrote in his book.

"I meant every word I said then," he stressed.

On other occasions, al-Zeidi has spoken emotionally about Iraqis who have suffered during the seven years since the US led an invasion of his country.

He says his first time in jail in Iraq was several months before the Bush press conference.

"Some Iraqis loyal to the Americans" detained him shortly after he produced a story charging that US soldiers killed a 5-year-old Iraqi girl.

"At the time I was taken from my home in my sleeping clothes and I was tortured for one day and then released. They wanted to teach me a lesson so I will not speak about their masters again," al-Zeidi said.

Al-Zeidi's book was published in Arabic by a Lebanese publishing house and profits will go to his charity foundation for Iraqis in need.

"I established my foundation a year ago to give some assistance to widows and orphans who have suffered from the US invasion," he said.

He is now searching for a European publishing house that will translate his book into other languages, "so people around the world would learn what Bush has done to his country and its people." - DPA