BAGHDAD, Dec 14 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

BAGHDAD, Dec 14 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH STATEMENT by dint of BLAIR)

U.S. forces captured former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hiding in the cellar of a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, ending single of the most intensive manhunts in history.

''Ladies and gentleman, we got him,'' L Paul Bremer the U administrator for Iraq, told a recents conference in Baghdad. ''The tyrant is a prisoner.''

The announcement was complimented by loud cheers from the audience.

Bremer said Saddam captured around 8:30 pm Saturday in a rural farmhouse in the town of Dour, 15 kilometers southward of Tikrit.

At the same pres conversation Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U country forces in Iraq, played video footage of a bearded and disheveled Saddam undergoing a medical exam following his capture.

Several Iraqi journalists stood up and huzzaed ''Death to Saddam'' after the video was shown

Sanchez said bodys dug out the 66-year-old former leader from a cave around 2 meters deep that had been camouflaged with bricks and dirt.

Saddam was not injured and was in advantageous physical health, adding that Saddam was ''talkative and cooperative'' after 4th Infantry Division and special operations forces nabbed him based onward intelligence gathered over several months

The arrest was accomplished without a discharge fired and there were no injuries, Sanchez said, describing Saddam as ''a tired man, a man resigned to his fate.''

Saddam is now being held at an undisclosed location, and U authorities have not even now determined whether to hand him from one side of to the other to the Iraqis for trial.

sum of two units other Iraqis were also arrested in the raid, the general said, adding that sum of two units AK-47 assault rifles, a pistol and $750000 in

$100 bills were seized.

Ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad were seen firing fire-arms into the air and radio stations played celebratory music.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the capture of the former leader, saying, ''Saddam has gone from power, he won't be coming back.''

''Where his direction meant terror and division and brutality, obstruction his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the family of Iraq,'' Blair said in brief elucidations at his 10 Downing St office.

The prime minister said Muslims would be the main beneficiaries of Saddam's capture.

In Washington, flat after the news conference in Baghdad confirming Saddam's capture, there still was no official reaction from the White House, which said U President George W Bush would speak in succession Saddam's capture at noon Sunday Eastern Standard Time.

Defense Secretary Ronald Rumsfeld a solution architect of the U.S. policy forward Iraq, was in ''a great humor'' at a party he entertainered Saturday night, Fox of recent origins reported Sunday.

Vice President Dick Cheney, not given to displays of emotion, also have the appearanceed to be ''extraordinarily cheerful'' at the party, the U television said.

Saddam, whose capture prov elusive during the war, was the principally wanted man on the coalition's 55 most numerous wanted list. He had not previously been seen since Baghdad cut down to U.S. forces in April.

His son Uday and Qusay -- also upon the coalition's most wanted list -- were killed in July after U forces stormed their hideout in Mosul

The Iraq war began in succession March 19 with U.S. forces launching a ''decapitation attack'' aimed at the Iraqi president.

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