Cruise says his `mission impossible' was leaving Katie and Suri to promote film

ROME (AP) _ Tom Cruise says his ``mission impossible'' was leaving his infant daughter and fiancee Katie Holmes to promote his new film, ``Mission: Impossible III,'' in Rome. <br/><br/>Cruise

Monday, April 24th 2006, 11:02 am

By: News On 6

ROME (AP) _ Tom Cruise says his ``mission impossible'' was leaving his infant daughter and fiancee Katie Holmes to promote his new film, ``Mission: Impossible III,'' in Rome.

Cruise showed up in the middle of a news conference Monday that he hadn't been expected to attend. The premiere of ``Mission: Impossible III'' was scheduled later that night.

``My mission impossible was to be here today,'' the 43-year-old actor told reporters. ``I didn't want to come. My daughter was just born and I didn't want to leave her and her mother.''

His daughter Suri was born Tuesday in Los Angeles. She is the first child for Cruise and Holmes, 27. Cruise has a son and daughter from his marriage to ex-wife Nicole Kidman.

In ``Mission: Impossible III,'' superagent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes on an icy villain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Director J.J. Abrams, creator of TV's ``Lost'' and ``Alias,'' has said he aimed to balance action with character interplay in the spirit of the television show on which the ``Mission: Impossible'' films are based.

Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell and Maggie Q also star in the movie, which is scheduled to open May 5 worldwide.