24 January 2004	Saturday	01 Zilhaj 1424

TIKRIT, Jan 23: The hole in which US soldiers found former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hiding could be filled in to prevent it becoming a "shrine", a US military spokesman said on Friday.

The Fourth Infantry Division, which captured Saddam Hussein at a farm in central Iraq last month, has asked for permission to destroy the hole and the nearby mud hut which were his last refuges.

"In order to avoid making it a tourist attraction and/or a shrine, we believe the best course of action is to eliminate it," Master Sergeant Robert Cargie said.

The sergeant said no decision had been made by military commanders in Baghdad, nor by the Governing Council. Both will have a say in the final course of action, and destroying it is just one option, Sergeant Cargie said.

The spokesman declined to discuss other possibilities and the US military in Baghdad had no comment. About 600 soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division and special forces captured the bearded and bedraggled Saddam inside the 2.6 metre-deep hole.

Nearby was a small mud hut Saddam had also used, in which soldiers found two beds, a refrigerator containing lemonade and hot dogs and an open box of Belgian chocolates.-Reuters