The director of an orphanage in Iraq said the shoe sculpture set up to honour the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former US President George W Bush has been removed.

Fatin al-Nassiri said Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed because government property should not be used for something with a political bias.

A sofa-sized shoe statue was formally unveiled to the public on Thursday in the hometown of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Baghdad-based artist Laith al-Amari described his fiberglass-and-copper work in Tikrit as a homage to the pride of the Iraqi people.

Meanwhile, the man who threw the shoe, Muntazer al-Zaidi, who was last seen by his brother on January 16th.