LONDON, Jan 9: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday that the way Saddam Hussein was executed was `completely wrong’, in his first reaction to the hanging of the former Iraqi leader.

“The manner of the execution of Saddam Hussein was completely wrong, but that should not blind us to the crimes he committed against his people,” he said at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Mr Blair had declined until now to answer questions about Saddam's hanging.

Widespread criticism was fuelled by a grainy mobile phone video of the execution, which showed Saddam being taunted by officials seconds before the noose was put around his head.

“The manner of the execution is unacceptable and it's wrong. But we should ... not... lurch into a position of forgetting the victims of Saddam,” said Mr Blair. —AFP