Tom Cruise's Impossible Mission

(AP)  Tom Cruise said Monday his "mission impossible" was tearing himself away from his newborn daughter to promote his new movie in the Italian capital.

"My mission impossible was to be here today," Cruise told reporters in Rome, where he was promoting the premiere of "Mission: Impossible III." "I didn't want to come. My daughter was just born, and I didn't want to leave her and her mother."

The baby girl, named Suri, was born Tuesday and is the first child for Cruise's bride-to-be, Katie Holmes, 27. Cruise, 43, has an adopted daughter and son from his marriage to Nicole Kidman.

Details about the birth were not disclosed, but it had been planned to take place as a silent procedure under the tenets of the Church of Scientology, to which both Cruise and Holmes belong.

Cruise surprised everyone by showing up in the middle of a news conference he had not been expected to attend. The movie's premiere was scheduled for Monday night.

"I'm going to be here for a few hours, and then I'm going to get on a plane and go back to Katie and Suri," Cruise said.

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 movies are based.

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

The cast members later delighted thousands of screaming fans by appearing on a podium in the packed square in Rome's historical center, Piazza del Popolo, where they were interviewed about the movie.

The warmest welcome, however, was reserved for Cruise, who caused a wave of near-hysteria when he waved at the public and exclaimed, "Roma! Italy! Italia!"

He then climbed down a couple of steps and picked up a white teddy someone had tossed in his direction, and read the note attached to it out loud.

"This is for Suri, we wish her lots of love and good things. Tom go always like you're doing now. Kiss to Katie," Cruise read.

The actor thanked the public for supporting him and his family. "I also want to thank you for the warm welcome that you've given to my daughter Suri and my fiancée Katie, and I just love you all," Cruise said.