Washington, July 29: A top US official has suggested that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be killed without hesitation, if capturing him alive meant risking the lives of US soldiers. The comments, by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, appeared to signal that only clean surrender could guarantee survival to the former Iraqi dictator. "If Saddam Hussein could be captured safely, without any harm to US service persons, that would be great," Armitage told media television yesterday. "If there is a question of harm being done to us servicemen, then he should be killed."

The Deputy Secretary of State became the second high-ranking US official to indicate in less than a week that while the United States was interested in getting Saddam out of the picture, it had no particular concern whether he ended up alive or dead.

Speaking in Congress last Wednesday, defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said top pentagon officials had left it to commanders in the field to decide whether to take former senior Iraqi leaders dead or alive. "If a person is determined to fight to the death, then they may very well have that opportunity," Rumsfeld warned without specifically mentioning Saddam Hussein.

The remarks by Armitage came a week after US forces killed Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, following a pitched battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a breakthrough that led to an intensified the search for the deposed strongman. Bureau Report