Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is depressed and has begged the Iraqi government for mercy, Iraq's Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi said in an interview published today.
"He is distraught and depressed," Allawi said of Saddam, the man who was Iraq's president for 24 years and is awaiting trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
"Saddam and his colleagues are not the giants that the media sometimes talks about. Saddam sent us an oral message in which he begged for mercy."
Mr Allawi also said he had survived four assassination attempts since his interim government came to power in June, the last five days ago when his guards became suspicious of a car outside Baghdad's Green Zone compound housing the government and the US embassy.
The car blew up and a battle between gunmen and his guards ensued. Two non-Iraqi Arabs were arrested, he said. Mr Allawi would not give their nationality but said they belonged to Islamist militant groups.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant Washington says is allied to al-Qaeda, has threatened to assassinate Mr Allawi, which he described in the interview as "despicable above all for the Iraqi people and for Iraq".