But Democrats vowed to take the war there in a new direction if they seize control of the US Congress on Tuesday.
TEXAS: President George W Bush hailed the conviction of Saddam Hussein as a milestone in Iraq but Democrats vowed to take the war there in a new direction if they seize control of the US Congress on Tuesday.
The former Iraq president was sentenced to death by hanging by a US- sponsored court in Baghdad on Sunday after being found guilty of crimes against humanity. Bush did not directly address the death sentence that has been assailed by Washington's close European allies.
The verdict came just two days before US congressional elections in which Bush's Republicans are at risk of losing control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democrats have tried to make the election a referendum on Bush's handling of the Iraq war.
"Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law," Bush told reporters in Waco as he left for Nebraska and Kansas to campaign for Republican candidates.
"It is a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," he said.
White House spokesman Tony Snow called it "a good day for the Iraqi people." He and other Republicans seized on it as a sign of progress in Iraq.
But election-season bickering quickly broke out. Democrats said justice was served but that it was unclear how the verdict would change the course of the war.
"The Iraqis have traded a dictator for chaos. Neither option is acceptable, especially when it is our troops who are caught in the middle," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"We have seen milestones pass in Iraq before, with no lasting signs of progress," he said. "If today's sentencing is to be any different, we need to take a new direction in Iraq."
Bush, who is trying to fend off a strong challenge from Democrats in Tuesday's elections, has warned repeatedly on the campaign trail of the consequences of abandoning Iraq's fledgling government and has accused Democrats of attacking him over the war without offering their own plan.
Snow said it was "absolutely preposterous" to think the verdict was timed to help Republicans in the election, saying anyone who believed Iraq's judiciary was trying to time its verdict ahead of the elections must be "smoking rope".
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