The European Parliament urged Iraq on Thursday to drop a death sentence against Saddam-era minister Tareq Aziz, warning that killing him would "do little to improve the climate of violence."

The parliament adopted a resolution reiterating its opposition to the death penalty in all cases, including war crimes and genocide, and called it "the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment."

Executing Aziz, who is now 74 years of age, "will do little to improve the climate of violence in Iraq" when the country "is in dire need of national reconciliation," the resolution says.

The parliament, however, acknowledged "the importance of holding accountable those who violate human rights, including (former) politicians, in the framework of the rule of law and due process."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said last week that he would not sign the execution order against Aziz, who served as deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein.

But the EU parliament noted that the Iraqi constitution includes "mechanisms for executions to be carried out on parliamentary authority."

Aziz was handed the death penalty on October 26 for the suppression of Shiite religious parties in the 1980s, and is also on trial for a crackdown on Iraqi Kurds, of which Talabani is one.

Iraq's supreme criminal court found the long-time international face of former president Saddam Hussein's regime guilty of "deliberate murder and crimes against humanity," sentencing him to death.

In poor health and among Saddam's few surviving top cohorts, Aziz has been in prison since surrendering in April 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad in the US-led invasion of Iraq.

(Source: AFP)