US President George W.Bush said Sunday that with the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein,"a dark and painful era is over"in the history of Iraq,but cautioned that does not mean an end to the ongoi ng violence in Iraq.

"Yesterday,December the 13th,at around 8:30p.m.Baghdad time(1730GMT),United States military forces captured Saddam Hussein alive,"Bush said in a televised speech.

"And now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions,"he said."The capture of this man was crucial to the rise of a free Iraq."

Bush said for the vast majority of the Iraqi people,"this event brings further assurance that the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever."

"And this afternoon I have a message for the Iraqi people:You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again,"he said,urging Iraqis to "come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq."

"I also have a message for all Americans:The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq.We still face terrorists who would rather go on killing the innocent than accept the rise of liberty in the heart of the Middle East,"he said.

Bush made his first public,official response hours after he received confirmation of the capture of Saddam by US forces in northern Iraq on Saturday.

Bush was alerted Saturday afternoon by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that US forces believed they had captured Saddam,but he did not get the final confirmation until 5:14a.m.EST (1014GMT)Sunday.

Bush praised the American forces in Iraq for their success in capturing Saddam,but cautioned that the event did not mean an end of violence in Iraq,amid hopes that the capture of Saddam will help break the organized Iraq resistance,which has left over 190US soldiers dead since Bush declared major combat operations in Iraq over on May 1.

Saddam,who had been on the run for eight months since the US-led coalition force invaded Baghdad on April 9,was captured by the US forces alive without resistance.

He was captured in an underground hole at a farmhouse,15km south of Tikrit,his hometown in northern Iraq,at 8:30p.m.(1730GMT)Saturday,US ground forces commander in Iraq Lt.Gen.Ricardo Sanchez told a press conference in Baghdad.But US authorities had kept quiet on the event until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam's identity.

Saddam's capture,which came over four months after his sons,Qusai and Odai,were killed on July 22,was based on information from a member of a family "close to him,"said Maj.Gen.Ray Odierno,commander of the 4th Infantry Division,which captured Saddam.

US forces launched a massive manhunt for Saddam after the former Iraqi regime was toppled in April this year,and a 25million US dollars bounty was placed on his head.