Iraqi PM fails to get Obama's attention in painfully awkward video

He was seconds away from whipping out his smartphone just so he had something to do

(Telegraph)

Forget Angela Merkel exuberantly measuring things as Barack Obama looked on from a bench, a better weird moment involving the US president has emerged from the G7 summit.

A video shows Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi and an aide sit down next to Obama on a bench in the hope of engaging him in conversation.

He is already too immersed in one with Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi however, and things soon get awkward.

After an encouraging nudge from his aide, al-Abadi sidles a little closer to Obama, who completely misses this.

Perhaps sparing him further embarrassment, the cameraman then zooms in to cut the Iraqi PM out of shot, who is later forced to simply leave without a greeting, checking his watch as his aide shrugs.

Obama took aim at Vladimir Putin at the summit in Germany, accusing him of trying to 'recreate the glories of the Soviet empire'.

The G8 became the G7 after Russia was suspended following the annexation of Crimea last year.