Jordanian King Abdullah II said on Sunday that the Iraqi people should gain independence and manage Iraq's affairs by themselves, the official Petra News Agency reported.

"Our efforts are directed toward this," the king said while meeting with visiting Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Itshiro Aezawa as an envoy of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

The king stressed that his country will spare no efforts to provide assistance to speed up different humanitarian organizations's activities in Iraq.

The king made the remarks amid the US forces' declaration that former Iraqi President Hussein Saddam, who had been on the run since his regime collapsed on April 9, was captured Saturday evening in an underground hole near his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq.

The Japanese envoy arrived in Amman earlier in the day in a bid to brief the king on Japan's plan to send 600-strong troops to Iraq on a humanitarian mission.