NEW ORLEANS -- A prankster claiming to be a high-ranking official from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development addressed a conference Monday on the future of New Orleans' public housing, claiming the government was reversing its policy.

Following speeches by Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin, the man, who said he was the "deputy assistant secretary of HUD," announced a total reversal in the government's policy on public housing in New Orleans, claiming HUD would halt plans to demolish thousands of public housing units.

HUD spokeswoman Donna White said the government's plans remain unchanged. Demolition and redevelopment of several major projects will go ahead as planned, she said. She called "cruel" the speech and an accompanying Web site that parodies one operated by the Housing Authority of New Orleans.

William Loiry, president of Equity International, the firm that organized the conference in Kenner, La., said, "everything seemed legitimate" about the man who made the speech until he suggested that people leave the conference, board buses and attend a ribbon-cutting at a public housing development.

About 1,000 people had registered for the conference.

By the time Loiry and security officers went to find the speaker, he was gone.

Reached by cell phone, the man who gave the speech said he and his loosely affiliated band of "Yes Men" have pulled off similar pranks, including several involving the World Trade Organization.

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The Yes Men: http://www.theyesmen.org

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