Asked about the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Sunday in Beijing that China hopes the incident can be conducive to peace and stability in Iraq.

"We hope that the latest development of situation in Iraq is conducive to the Iraqi people taking their destiny into their own hands, and to realizing peace and stability in Iraq," Liu said.

When Saddam was in power, the Iraqi people had suffered from several wars and sanctions for many years, the spokesman said.
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(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2003)