UN chief urges stay of executions

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, dogged by charges he was softening UN opposition to capital punishment, weighed in again on the issue on Saturday, urging a stay of executions in Iraq.

Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, wrote to the Iraqi authorities urging "restraint by the government of Iraq in the execution of death sentences imposed by the Iraqi High Tribunal," Ban spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.

"The letter also refers to the Secretary General's view that all members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian and human rights laws."

A clandestine video of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain's execution last Saturday provoked international criticism and further inflamed sectarian passions in Iraq.

Ban, a South Korean who took office as the United Nations' eighth secretary-general last Monday, created a flap on Tuesday by saying capital punishment was up to individual nations.

The statement triggered a wave of criticism from human rights groups, prompting his spokeswoman to add later that Ban believed in the need to work to abolish the death penalty, although he was aware nations differed on the issue.

Kofi Annan, Ban's predecessor, opposed the death penalty as a matter of policy, along with many other top UN officials and all members of the European Union.

Some 68 countries, including South Korea, retain the death penalty, although many have not executed anyone in recent years and Seoul is considering abolishing it.

Following the criticism, Ban urged Iraq on Wednesday to stay executions after Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, appealed to Iraq not to put to death two Iraqi officials who served under Saddam.

Saddam's hanging angered his fellow Sunni Arabs after video images showed Shiite officials taunting him on the gallows. Saddam's execution had been rushed through four days after he lost an appeal.

Barzan Al Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Al Bander, a former chief judge, were found guilty along with Saddam of crimes against humanity in the killings of 148 Shiite men from Dujail in the 1980s.

The Iraqi government has not set a date for the executions, but speculation has mounted they could be put to death soon.

Meanwhile, Iraq's prime minister, Nouri Al Maliki, threatened to "review" relations with countries that criticised Saddam's execution and announced a new security crackdown in the chaos-wracked country.

"The Iraqi government could be obliged to review its relations with any state that fails to respect the wish of the Iraqi people," warned Maliki, who has ordered an investigation into the illegal filming of the execution.

"We consider the execution of the dictator an internal affair that concerns only the Iraqi people," he said.

Maliki said the criticism would not deter his government from punishing other officials of the ousted regime.

UK finance minister Gordon Brown condemned the manner of Saddam's execution in an interview to be broadcast on BBC television on Sunday.

"Now that we know the full picture of what happened, we can sum this up as a deplorable set of events," Brown said.

US President George W. Bush on Thursday acknowledged that the execution should have been "more dignified."