US President George W. Bush welcomed the guilty verdict as a "major achievement" and a "milestone" for Iraq's move to democracy.

 "The man who once struck fear in the hearts of Iraqis had to listen to free Iraqis recount the acts of torture and murder that he ordered against their families and against them," Bush said.

 White House spokesman Tony Snow said the trial offered proof that the country's fledging government was on the road to democracy.

 "You now have absolute proof that you've got an independent judiciary in Iraq," Snow said in a television interview.

 Snow also rejected any speculation that the administration had influenced the timing of the trial's verdict in Baghdad to boost Bush's Republicans in Tuesday's US congressional election.

 Two of Washington's top allies in the war, Britain and Australia, also welcomed the verdict.

 "The whole process of the trial is a sign of democratic hope and I believe the world should see it as such," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told local television.

 Britain said Saddam had been "held to account" for his crimes after he was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

 "Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice," said British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in a statement.

 Other European leaders gave a mixed response to the verdict, both welcoming the end of the trial and expressing concern about the death sentence imposed on him.

 But only Finland, which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, explicitly demanded that the hanging not be carried out.

 "The EU opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances and it should not be carried out in this case either," the Finnish presidency said in a statement.

 France, one of the main opponents of the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam, said it hoped already bloody sectarian strife in Iraq would not worsen as a result of the death sentence.

 Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, currently visiting Paris, said the trial of his predecessor was "fair" but refused to comment on the death sentence pending the appeal period, which runs for a month.

 But not everyone was gratified by the verdicts, which saw Saddam and two of his senior allies given death sentences after an Iraqi court found them guilty of crimes against humanity.

 Amnesty International described the trial as a "shabby affair, marred by serious flaws".

 Human Rights Watch director for international justice Richard Dicker said it should have been conducted by an international court and labelled the verdict a "lost opportunity to give a sense of the rule of law".

 UN human rights chief Louise Arbour called for a moratorium on executions and said the rights of the defendants to a fair appeal must be "fully respected."

 A senior Vatican official lamented the death penalty, suggesting it marked a vengeful "eye for an eye" mentality still gripping turmoil-torn Iraq.

 "Iraq is among those countries which haven't yet made the civilized choice of abolishing the death penalty," said Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

 Iraq's majority Shiites rejoiced as their longtime oppressor was sentenced to death by hanging, while among the Sunni minority and other Sunni Arab states, where Saddam long symbolised Arab strength and pride, there was muted discontent.

 In few places is Saddam more despised than in neighbouring Iran, and in the capital Tehran there was a sense of relief and jubilation that an arch-foe had finally had his come-uppance.

 The only lingering concern for Iranians was that death by hanging was somehow not enough and his demise could impede justice for his "crimes" against Iran, which is still reeling from the scars of the 1980-1988 war against Iraq.

 Likewise, Kuwaitis erupted with cheers and applause, although some said they would prefer him to rot in jail for the rest of his life.

 "Thank God we lived to see this day," said Ahmad al-Misfer, a 70-year-old whose son, a Kuwaiti army officer, has not been heard of since he was arrested in 1990 during the seven-month Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.

 The ruling Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, on the other hand, condemned the death sentence on Saddam, recalling the help the deposed Iraqi leader gave to the Palestinian people.

 Highly popular in the Palestinian territories, Saddam gave money to the families of people killed by Israeli forces and relatives of suicide bombers when the intifada, or uprising, broke out in September 2000.

Agence France Presse