LONDON, March 27: The man who led US forces to Saddam Hussein's underground hiding place in Iraq was one of the former president's closest bodyguards, a BBC programme says.

It found Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al Musslit betrayed Saddam Hussein shortly after he himself had been arrested and interrogated in December.

The BBC's Panorama programme quoted US soldiers as saying Musslit, a loyal lieutenant in Saddam's security organization and Fedayeen militia, would not get the reward because he had not given the information willingly.

Musslit was one of the people in a car with Saddam Hussein when he left Baghdad after the fall of the city last April, the BBC said on its Web site ahead of Sunday night's Panorama broadcast.

It said Musslit led troops to their prize hours after being arrested. He was flown to Tikrit, Saddam's home town, where US officials interrogated him and made him point out where the former president was hiding.

Troops found Saddam in a hole in the ground near farm buildings. Footage of him shortly after he was discovered, having been in hiding for eight months, showed a man with a long grey and black beard and looking dishevelled and bewildered.-Reuters