BAGHDAD, July 3: The United States on Thursday announced a 25-million-dollar reward to Iraqi citizens for information leading to the capture of their former leader Saddam Hussein.

The US overseer for Iraq, Paul Bremer, also offered a reward of 15 million dollars for help in the capture of his two sons, Uday and Qusay.

“I have certainly not forgotten Saddam Hussein and his sons, among the most evil men the world has known,” Mr Bremer said in a message broadcast to the Iraqi people.

“They may or may not still be alive. Until we know for sure, their names will continue to cast a shadow of fear over this country.

“That is why I am today announcing a 25-million-dollar award for information leading to the capture of Saddam Hussein and a 15-million-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of either of his sons,” Mr Bremer said.

“If any of you has such information, I encourage you to come forward and give it to any coalition official — civilian or military,” added the English transcript of the address.

The bounties will be offered under the US State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” programme, according to US officials in Washington.

“In the absence of conclusive evidence that these folks are dead, we have to make contingency plans for their arrest,” one official said.

The reward is the same as the 25 million dollars offered for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden, believed to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on US targets.

On Sunday, Mr Bremer said he believed the chances of capturing Saddam were “very high” but he has also expressed concern that the unresolved nature of his fate was hindering US efforts to rid Iraq of Saddam loyalists.

“There’s no doubt that the fact that we had not been able to show his face allows these remnants of that Baathist regime to (say) ... we will come back, so don’t cooperate with the coalition,” Bremer told BBC in an interview.

On June 21, Mr Bremer told reporters in Jordan that he was eager to reach a final determination on Saddam’s fate to convince reluctant Iraqis to cooperate with his post-war government.

“I think it’s important for us to try to reach a conclusion and to be able to show why we reached that conclusions — have him captured and show him alive, or prove definitively that he is dead,” he said.

“The uncertainty surrounding Saddam clearly gives an impetus to the Baathist members of the old regime who are sort of out and about,” he said, adding that efforts to track down senior officials from the former ruling Baath Party were being complicated by the lack of solid information.

Under a growing wave of anti-US attacks on the ground, coalition forces launched Operation Desert Sidewinder on Sunday in the hope of wiping out Fedayeen militia fighters and other diehards from the ousted Baath regime. —AFP