Iran cleric says US sowing discord over Saddam death

TEHRAN, Jan 5 (Reuters) An influential Iranian cleric said today the United States wanted to use Saddam Hussein's execution to stoke tensions between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

A mobile phone video of Shi'ite Iraqi officials taunting the former Sunni president on the gallows has inflamed sectarian passions inside Iraq, already on the brink of civil war, and sparked growing outrage from Sunni Arabs.

Saddam, who was executed on Saturday, was tried in a US-sponsored court but the US military says it had no role in the hanging and would have handled it differently.

''America's method is to start sectarian differences,'' Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at today's prayers in a sermon broadcast on state radio.

''They want to use Saddam's death to portray divisions among Shi'ites and Sunnis. Dictators have no religion. Saddam was not a Sunni and he did not believe in any religion,'' he said. ''Saddam did not kill just Shi'ites.'' ''Do not doubt that the enemy's plan in Iraq and Iran is to inflame differences among Shi'ites and Sunnis. In Iran and Iraq, for years, Shi'ites and Sunnis have been living together peacefully,'' said Khatami, a member of a powerful clerical body, the Assembly of Experts and a regular leader of Friday prayers in the capital, Tehran.

Officials in predominantly Shi'ite Iran, which fought Iraq from 1980 to 1988 when Saddam was in power, have said the former president's execution was a victory for Iraqis.

Some Sunni Arab countries criticised the timing of Saddam's execution on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Libya, the only state to show solidarity, declared three days mourning.

''Expressing regret over the death of this insane figure and announcing days for public mourning, what does it mean? This act means participating in all of Saddam's crimes,'' Khatami said, without naming any state by name.

''You are a Muslim government. Do you believe in (the Muslim holy book) the Koran? ... Saddam has killed millions of people.

Are you expressing regret over his death? This act is obviously against the Koran,'' he added.

REUTERS AKJ VV1740