United States first lady Laura Bush speaks at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan May 21, 2005. (Reuters)

Protesters jostled and harangued U.S. first lady Laura Bush on Sunday when she visited a Jerusalem shrine at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"How dare you come in here! Why your husband kill Muslims?" one protester shouted at the first lady as Israeli police and U.S. Secret Service agents formed a tight cordon around her to keep people back. For Bush, on a Middle East goodwill tour, it was a rare close encounter with hostile demonstrators.

A small crowd of people pressed in on Bush as she entered the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem's walled Old City. One worshipper cried out as she entered: "None of you belong in here."

Bush, who made an appeal for peace later, did not respond to him or to an old woman inside the mosque who shouted "Koran, Koran" at her in Arabic.

Bush, dressed in a black pantsuit, with black headscarf donned in religious respect and held tightly on her head, exited with police linking arms around her.

She began a Middle East trip Friday acknowledging that the U.S. image in the Muslim world had been badly damaged by a prisoner abuse scandal and a magazine report, since retracted, that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran.

Shortly before visiting the mosque, Bush appeared at the adjacent ancient Western Wall and was confronted by dozens of nationalist Jews demanding Washington free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. They shouted and waved placards.

Bush inserted a small handwritten note in a cleft of the wall and paused there for about 60 seconds before returning to her heavily-guarded motorcade for the short trip to the mosque.

The disturbances during her trip to the Jerusalem holy site showed "what an emotional place this is as we go from each one of these very, very holy spots to the next," Bush said later during a stop in the West Bank oasis town of Jericho.

"We're reminded again of what we all want, what every one of us prays for what we all want is peace," said Bush, who in Jericho heard complaints from Palestinian women about Israeli occupation policies such as roadblocks.

(Agencies)

jostle: (of a person) to knock or push against someone rather roughly（撞，推，擠）

harangue: to attack or try to persuade with a long often loud and attacking speech（沒完沒了的高聲訓斥）

shrine : a place of worship hallowed by association with some sacred thing or person（廟；祠；圣地；古跡）

goodwill : the friendly hope that something will succeed（善意，親切）

motorcade: a procession of people traveling in motor cars（汽車行列）