US Reaction: President George Bush has welcomed Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict and sentence to death as a milestone on Iraq's path from tyranny to the rule of law. Speaking in Waco, Texas, Mr Bush praised the trial as a major achievement for Iraq's government and democratic system.
"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. Today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come," he said.
Mr Bush said the US remained committed to supporting the Iraqi government, despite calls for withdrawal, which have become louder during the US election campaign.
"The United States is proud to stand with the Iraqi people. We will continue to support Iraq's unity government as it works to bring peace to its great country. We appreciate the determination and bravery of the Iraqi security forces, who are stepping forward to defend their free nation. And we give our thanks to the men and women of America's armed forces, who have sacrificed so much for the cause of freedom in Iraq - and they've sacrificed for the security of the United States. Without their courage and skill, today's verdict would not have happened," he said.
Mr Bush is increasingly isolated in his conviction that the war in Iraq was worthwhile, with only 29 per cent of the US public supporting his policy there. Former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a leading neo-conservative advocate of the war, said this weekend that he now believed it had been a mistake.
"I think if I had been psychic and had seen where we are today and people had said, 'Should we go into Iraq?' I think now I probably would have said 'no'," he told Vanity Fair.
Meanwhile, the Army Times, a newspaper read widely within the US military, has joined calls for defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld to be sacked for his handling of the war.
"The time has come, Mr President, to face the hard bruising truth. Donald Rumsfeld must go. Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large," the paper said in an editorial.
