CRAWFORD (Texas): United States President George W. Bush talked with his top National Security Adviser on Saturday about the world's reaction to the hanging of the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein — an execution Mr. Bush called a milestone on Iraq's road to democracy.

Mr. Bush warned that Mr. Hussein's death would not halt the bloodshed and political discord splitting the country. He warned of more challenges ahead for U.S. troops.

``Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead,'' he said in a statement released on Friday night from his Texas ranch. ``Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq's young democracy continues to progress.''

The threat of violence comes at a time when Mr. Bush is completing his weeks-long effort to change U.S. policy in Iraq.

The President's statement had a sober, measured tone that contrasted with his offhand remark after U.S. troops found the deposed Iraqi dictator in an underground hideout in 2003.

``Good riddance,'' Mr. Bush said then. ``The world is better off without you, Mr. Saddam Hussein.''

Mr. Bush said Mr. Hussein received a fair trial — ``the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime.'' He said the trial, which ended with Mr. Hussein being sentenced to death, was a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move beyond decades of oppression and create a society governed by the rule of law. "Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule,'' Mr. Bush said.

The execution came at the end of a difficult year for Iraqis and for U.S. troops, he said. The U.S. death toll is nearing 3,000, and December is going down as one of the deadliest for American troops since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

``Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror,'' he said.

Mr. Bush was asleep when Mr. Hussein was executed for the killings of 148 Shia Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill him in 1982.

``The President concluded his day knowing that the final phase of bringing Saddam Hussein to justice was under way,'' deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said.

At 6.15 p.m. local time on Friday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley briefed Mr. Bush on the procedures for the execution, and told him it would take place in the next few hours.``The President was pleased with the culmination of the Iraqi judicial process and that justice was done,'' White House spokesman David Almacy said, describing Mr. Bush's reaction to learning that the execution was close to being carried out. — AP

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