The Pentagon said Friday that it has decided to grant prisoner of war status to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein who is now in US custody.

"The bottom line is that Saddam Hussein was the leader of the old regime's military forces, and therefore he was a member of the military, and he was captured. That makes him an enemy prisoner of war," Pentagon spokesman Michael Shavers told reporters.

"It's unusual that you have such a high-ranking enemy prisoner of war. So I think we just wanted to make sure that we had carefully thought through all the ramifications," Shavers said.

He said that the former Iraqi leader, who was captured by US forces on Dec. 13, is entitled to and is being given all the rights he has under the Geneva Convention as a enemy prisoner of war.

Agencies reports said that the decision on the status of Saddam was finalized this week. This is the first time for the Pentagon to formally declare Saddam a prisoner of war since his capture.

Speaking on Dec. 14, one day after Saddam's capture, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters said that the former Iraqi leader's treatment "will be governed by the Geneva Convention."

"He (Saddam) will be accorded the privileges as if he were a prisoner of war," Rumsfeld said at that time.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2004)