In mainly Shiite Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, around 500 people marched carrying placards and shouting slogans denouncing the former leader, who is accused of killing tens of thousands of Shiites following a 1991 uprising.

"Yes, yes for the verdict, which we have long been waiting for!" chanted the crowd, largely made up of students and government workers.

Underscoring the widening divide between Shiite and Sunni, about 250 pro-Saddam demonstrators took to the streets in the Sunni city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. They were dispersed by Iraqi soldiers for breaking the curfew over the province. There were no reports of deaths or injuries.

Another 400 protesters marched through Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, denouncing the verdict against Saddam and demanding the ouster of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had called for the former president's execution.

The curfew was temporarily lifted in Tikrit to give allow residents to shop and run errands. Angry crowds had gathered in the city on Sunday, holding aloft Saddam portraits, firing guns and chanting slogans vowing to avenge his execution.

Saddam was sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal for ordering the execution of nearly 150 Shiites from the city of Dujail following a 1982 attempt on his life.

Iraq's president, whose office must ratify the death penalty sentence against Saddam if it's upheld on appeal, said from Paris Sunday that the trial of the ousted Iraqi leader was fair.

Jalal Talabani would not comment on the guilty verdict or death sentence for fear it could inflame tensions in his volatile nation.

If the appeals court upholds the sentences, they must be ratified by Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, and his two vice presidents, one a Sunni Arab.

Talabani has opposed the death penalty in the past, but found a way around it by deputizing a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf ¡ª a substitute that has been legally accepted.

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