That frustration verged on hostility when US forces hampered the media from covering the third straight day of anti-American protests by between 200 and 300 Iraqis outside Baghdad's Palestine Hotel where US operations are housed.

For the first time, visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras about 30 meters (yards) from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel.

"We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marine colonel who wore the name Zarcone but would not give his first name or title.

The tensions were exacerbated when masked US marines who said they were searching for weapons raided rooms at the hotel in the early hours of the morning.

Jean-Paul Mari, a journalist with the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur said three marines stormed his room and forced him at gunpoint to lie on the floor.

His room was searched twice before troops moved to the nearby office of the Japanese Kyodo news service.

"They explained they were searching for a cache of arms," Kyodo spokesman Shingo Kinawa said.

Marine spokesman Captain Joe Plenzer said the military was seeing a different type of media behaviour than what it had been used to with journalists travelling with the troops when they invaded Iraq.

The so-called embedded journalists were easier to deal with, he said.

"What you have here is mob media," he told AFP. "These reporters don't really understand what we went through to get here and the guys who were embedded and came up through the fight know what it was like."

Hundreds of international reporters here have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of information on the reconstruction effort and US failure to provide other than haphazard access to public affairs officers at the Palestine Hotel, which is also the nerve centre for press operations in Baghdad.

Food is scarce, tempers frayed and hotel staff frantic with just 20 of the usual 450 employees reporting for work while more than 2,000 journalists seek an elusive quote from marines dressed in flak vests.

Plenzer remains virtually the sole point of contact.

"The military is tired and the reporters are tired and there are large numbers of both, and that makes for a volatile situation," noted Evan Osnos of the Chicago Tribune.

He said journalists who were embedded with the military during the invasion had an advantage over other reporters because they spoke marine jargon and knew the right people.

"The marines are definitely a very difficult nut to crack," Osnos said.

Most reporters set up here before Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted and widely view the arrival of about 500 marines as professional subjects and as competition for space.

"The marines are struggling a bit with the crowds and protestors," said Mark Hiney, a cameraman with the BBC. "They've had some threats to the hotel and that's why there are some fears and a bit of stress."

Plenzer stressed that despite the "mob mentality" the marines were conducting business in the correct and normal manner.

Another public affairs officer, Corporal John Hoellwarth, echoed Plenzer's sentiments, saying every effort was being made to support all journalists.

"We will try to support the non-embedded media. I don't want to invite any negative connotations but the embedded journalists just have a better understanding of how we do business," he said.

Hoellwarth said the room searches were conducted after reports were received by military intelligence. But he would not elaborate.

"We reacted to security concerns that arose from intelligence reports. The marines are always ready to protect the security of journalists, Iraqi civilians and marines on the hotel premises."

SPACE.WIRE