Ethiopia has made an impassioned appeal to Italy to return a revered ancient obelisk to its African home and end what it called "55 years of being given the runaround".
Breaking from the script of a speech to a summit on world hunger, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi apologised to delegates for a breach of protocol and launched into an emotional plea for Italy to give the obelisk back.
"Outside this FAO headquarters, which happens to be the former Italian colonial office, stands the obelisk of Axum," Zenawi told dozens of heads of state attending the meeting, organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). "It stands here because it was looted by Mussolini's Fascists in the 1930s. Successive Italian governments over the past 55 years have failed to honour agreements and restitute it.
Fascist leader Benito Mussolini had the 24-metre (75 foot) obelisk removed from the holy city of Axum in 1937 after his troops invaded Ethiopia, and set it up in front on his newly built "Ministry for an Italian Africa".
His brutal and disastrous dream of colonial rule died in the rubble of World War Two and in 1951 the ministry building was handed over to the United Nations to house the new FAO organisation.
However, the obelisk, which is believed to be more than 2,000 years old, stayed put.
"Ethiopia has for 55 years been given the runaround as one excuse after another is created to frustrate the implementation of the agreements.
"I am sure you will agree with me that this is nothing short of an outrage," Zenawi said in tones of controlled frustration.
Italy originally agreed to return it shortly after World War Two but the agreement was never kept and two further accords, the last made as recently as 1997, also fell by the wayside.
Streams of cars spewing exhaust fumes dash past the unmarked monument every day and last month it was hit by a bolt of lightning that chipped a gravestone-sized chunk off the top.
Some Italian officials said the thunderbolt was a sign that the obelisk should finally be sent home, but others remained adamantly opposed to its removal.