Vatican cleric hopes for clemency for Saddam

ROME, Dec 28 (Reuters) A senior Catholic cleric has said he hopes former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will be spared execution, citing the Church's opposition to the death penalty.

Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department, was quoted in Italy's Republica newspaper today saying there was a chance for last-minute clemency for Saddam after an appeals court upheld his death sentence.

''There's still a period of 30 days (before the death sentence must be carried out), the president's signature is required, things can happen,'' Martino was reported as saying.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has also condemned the decision to impose the death penalty.

Martino criticised the US authorities at the time of Saddam's capture in December 2003 for releasing TV pictures of soldiers checking his teeth ''as if he were a cow'', images that he said needlessly humiliated the man.

The former papal envoy to the United Nations said there was ''no doubt'' that Saddam was responsible for mass murders, but that did not change the Church's opposition to capital punishment.

''You can't think of compensating for one crime with another one,'' he said. Saddam was sentenced in November for crimes against humanity and the death penalty was upheld on Tuesday.

Martino said he backed the idea of holding a peace conference aimed at solving all the major conflicts in West Asia and reiterated the Vatican's position that invasion of Iraq by US-led coalition was wrong.

''(Pope) John Paul II did his duty. He said it would be an adventure from which there was no return. Now that is what we are seeing.'' REUTERS PDM HT1515