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India has traditionally had friendly relations with governments, including Hussein's in West Asia, and is concerned at the fallout of popular unrest on its four million citizens who live and work in the Gulf.

Hours after an appellate court in Iraq upheld on Tuesday the Tribunal's earlier verdict and death sentence against former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, the Indian government reacted, hoping the verdict would not be carried out.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on record as saying that the United States' decision to invade Iraq was a "mistake".

When Hussein was sentenced to death in early November, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had cautioned that "such life and death decisions require credible process of law, which does not appear to be victor's justice, and is acceptable to the people of Iraq and the international community."

IMO: It does seem that Saddam Hussein seems to have been misled into hoping for constancy and coherence in US policy and this has been sadly lacking in recent years by all administrations. The bad part really began when he invaded Kuwait, which was a nice little place (relatively speaking) but both he and the US newspapers (e.g. Barron's) seem to have mostly taken the view that the US approved of his activities. A fair trial would have been in order, if only that had been easy.