Italy urged Iraqi authorities not to execute Saddam Hussein...

Italy urged Iraqi authorities not to execute Saddam Hussein, saying it would be a mistake both ethically and politically.
"There is no doubt that carrying out Saddam Hussein's death sentence is unacceptable for us," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said in Paris after a meeting with his opposite number, Philippe Doust-Blazy .
D’Alema noted that Italy, in line with the European Union's position, opposed the death penalty as a matter of principle and campaigned against it everywhere in the world .
The minister, whose stance was echoed by Douste-Blazy, said executing Iraq's former leader might also have serious repercussions in a country where the Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities were deeply divided .
"Because of the dramatic situation in the country it could push Iraq further towards a full-blown civil war," he said .
D'Alema stressed that he was not calling into question Iraq's right to try Saddam for his crimes .
The only obvious exception in Italy to this stance came from the populist and regionalist Northern League, a junior member of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right opposition alliance.
Death was the "only possible punishment" for Saddam, League heavyweight Roberto Calderoli said.