United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that the captured former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be brought to account for "heinous crimes"he was accused of having committed during his decades of rule.

"Saddam Hussein has also been accused of heinous crimes,including gross and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.It is essential and absolutely vital that all those responsible for these crimes should be brought to account,"Annan told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

"I think this should be done through open trials in properly established courts of law,which will respect basic international norms and standards,"he said.

Saddam's arrest is a "positive"development because he "has cast a rather long shadow over the transition process,"the UN chief said."With his capture,that shadow has been removed."

Annan hoped that Saddam's fall will help move forward the transition period and accelerate the process of reconciliation and attempts to establish a provisional Iraqi government.

But the UN chief stressed his objection to impose a death penalty on Saddam,who was found by US troops in a hole in a town south of his hometown Tikrit,northern Iraq.

Annan said the United Nations does not support the death penalty and he and the world body would not "turn around and support a death penalty."