"Today marks an important milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law," the Associated Press quoted Deputy White House Press Secretary Scott Stanzel as saying.

"Saddam Hussein has received due process and legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people for so long, so this is an important day for the Iraqi people," Stanzel told reporters on board Air Force One to Texas, where U.S. President George W. Bush is to meet this week with his national security team.

Iraq's highest appeals court announced on Tuesday it had upheld the death sentence for the toppled president Saddam Hussein and he would be executed within the next 30 days.

Saddam, deposed by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was sentenced to death on Nov. 5, 2006 on crimes against humanity for killing of 148 people in Dujail village following a failed assassination attempt on him in 1982.