President rejects Aziz hanging order

President Jalal Talabani's statement sets up a showdown between those seeking maximum punishment for key figures of the ousted regime and groups calling for reconciliation after years of sectarian conflict unleashed by the 2003 US-led invasion.

"I feel compassion for Tariq Aziz because he is a Christian, an Iraqi Christian," Mr Talabani, a Kurd, told France's 24 TV. "In addition, he is an elderly man – aged over 70 – and this is why I will never sign this order."

Mr Talabani's opposition does not necessarily mean that Aziz, 74, will escape the noose. He was sentenced in October for his alleged role in a campaign of persecuting, killing and torturing members of Shiite opposition and religious parties that now dominate Iraq.

The Iraqi constitution says death sentences must be ratified by the president before they can be carried out but there are mechanisms to bypass the president – such as an act of parliament or the approval of one of Mr Talabani's deputies.

Justice Ministry spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar told the Associated Press news agency that death penalties can be carried out regardless of this refusal to sign an execution order.

Aziz was the highest-ranking Christian in Saddam's inner circle.

He became internationally known as the dictator's defender and a fierce American critic as foreign minister after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and later as a deputy prime minister who frequently travelled abroad on diplomatic missions.

Aziz met the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican just weeks before the March 2003 US-led invasion in an attempt to head off the coming conflict.