Italy urges Iraq to let Saddam live - FM D'Alema says execution could provoke worse violence still

Rome, November 6 - Italy urged Iraqi authorities on Monday not to execute Saddam Hussein, saying it would be a mistake both ethically and politically .

"There is no doubt that carrying out Saddam Hussein's death sentence is unacceptable for us," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said in Paris after a meeting with his opposite number, Philippe Doust-Blazy .

An Iraqi special tribunal on Sunday convicted the deposed Iraqi leader of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging for the brutal repression of a Shiite town in the 1980s .

D'Alema noted that Italy, in line with the European Union's position, opposed the death penalty as a matter of principle and campaigned against it everywhere in the world .

The minister, whose stance was echoed by Doust-Blazy, said executing Iraq's former leader might also have serious repercussions in a country where the Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities were deeply divided .

"Because of the dramatic situation in the country it could push Iraq further towards a full-blown civil war," he said .

D'Alema stressed that he was not calling into question Iraq's right to try Saddam for his crimes .

His line was confirmed by politicians from most Italian parties. D'Alema's own Democratic Left party, the largest in the ruling coalition, urged the EU to ask Iraq to convert the death sentence into a life prison sentence .

Italy has been particularly active in campaigning against the death penalty, presenting moratorium proposals at the United Nations Assembly in both 1994 and 1995 .

The only obvious exception to this stance on Monday came from the populist and regionalist Northern League, a junior member of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right opposition alliance .

Death was the "only possible punishment" for Saddam, League heavyweight Roberto Calderoli said .

Meanwhile in London, Premier Romano Prodi's restatement of the Italian line contrasted in a small but significant way with that of Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he met for talks .

"Italy is against the death penalty and even in a case as dramatic as this we believe it should not happen," Prodi said at a press conference .

Blair, pushed by journalists to say whether he believed Saddam should be hanged, declined to do so. Instead, he repeated that Britain opposes the death penalty .

Analysts said his careful remarks reflected Blair's wish to avoid open criticism of the United States-backed Iraqi tribunal that sentenced Hussein .

Opposition to the execution was also voiced, in strong terms, by the Vatican. Sentencing someone to death "is a crime, a crime to punish another crime," Cardinal Renato Martino, one of the pope's top aides, said .