TEHRAN, Nov 7: Iran on Tuesday urged the Iraqi government to ensure Saddam Hussein is hanged and not to cave in to any pressure to spare Tehran's former enemy from the death penalty.

“We hope that they will not be pressured by those who have launched psychological warfare into not carrying out the verdict,” government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

“The court verdict has been reached at the end of a long and open trial. We hope that the verdict is carried out for the Iraqi criminal in a way that prevents the crimes of dictators.” Leaders from countries in the European Union -- which is on principle opposed to the death penalty -- have expressed varying degrees of concern about the verdict.

Prime Minister Tony Blair declared his opposition to the death penalty for `Saddam or anybody else’, while the Finnish presidency of the EU argued explicitly that Saddam should not be executed.

The former Iraqi president is one of the most universally reviled men in Iran for leading Iraq in the 1980-1988 war that cost a total of around one million lives on both sides.—AFP