EU official backs execution ban after Iraq hangings

ROME, Jan 15 (Reuters) The European Union's top official said no man had the right to take another's life after the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's aides today and he backed calls for a United Nations ban on the death penalty.

Commenting on the dawn hanging of two aides of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he supported Italy's campaign for a moratorium on capital punishment at the United Nations.

''We consider that a man does not have the right to take the life of another man. It's a fundamental question,'' Barroso told a news conference after meeting Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

''I believe in our European values and I take this occasion to thank Italy for all the initiatives that it announced so that, in the framework of the United Nations, we can work together to put an end to death penalty,'' he said.

One of the two men hanged in Iraq today for crimes against humanity, Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, had his head ripped from his body during the execution, a detail that will add to the disgust many people expressed after watching Saddam's televised hanging.

Days after Saddam's illicitly filmed hanging on December 30, Prodi announced Italy's campaign for a U N moratorium on executions.

He was backed by human rights groups.

The new U N Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon initially distanced himself from calls for a U N ban, saying ''the issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide''.

He later softened his stance and urged Iraq to act with ''restraint'' over the death sentences for Saddam's accomplices.

The death penalty is banned in the EU but still exists in 68 nations around the world.

REUTERS LL BS1701