Senior Iraqi and US officials said Sunday that Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was surely captured in an overnight operation mounted by the US forces in northern Iraq.

US top administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer has informed the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC)that the ousted Iraqi leader was captured in his hometown of Tikrit,170km north of Baghdad.

Reports quoted IGC chief Abdul Aziz al-Hakim,as saying that the arrested figure was proved to be Saddam himself after a DNA test.

The US-led coalition informed reporters that a press conference will be held in the coalition's press center in central Baghdad at 3:00p.m.(1200GMT).

IGC member Ahmed Chalabi's office said on Sunday that "we are 100percent sure that Saddam has been detained by American forces."

Naseer Chaderchi,a Sunni IGC member told Dubai-based al-Arabiyatelevision that Bremer told him that Saddam was arrested and he wasinvited to see Saddam this evening.

Chaderchi said Saddam had a false beard when he was captured.

On the ground,Baghdadis fired gunshots to celebrate the captureof their former dictator.

The same scene was witnessed more than four months ago when Saddam's two sons,Uday and Qusay,were killed in northern city of Mosul.