Following this weekend's execution of Saddam Hussein, Italy is calling for the international community to impose a "universal moratorium" on capital punishment. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Tuesday his country would push for the international moratorium at the United Nations.

Rome is hoping to gain the support of the 85 UN member states who recently joined a non-binding declaration against the death penalty. Italy's ambassador to the UN, Marcello Spatafora, is expected to address the issue with Security Council President Vitaly Churkin in New York on Thursday. Italy has just gained a temporary seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Governments and media across Europe have been critical of Saddam's execution, but the loudest voices can be heard in Italy. "I believe this must constitute one of the top commitments of our international efforts because it is urgent to have an initiative to put an end to the barbarianism of the death penalty," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told the news agency ANSA. In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who as leader of Germany is now the chair of the EU Council for six months, also threw in her two euro cents, saying: "We respect the verdict but it is known that the German government is opposed to capital punishment."

In addition to its diplomatic front at the UN, the Italians are also seeking to get the European Union -- which makes a ban on capital punishment a precondition for membership -- to promote a global moratorium. Rome has also asked Germany to add the issue to the agenda at an upcoming meeting of justice ministers in Dresden.

In Iraq, the government deflected the criticism, noting that the Italians themselves had executed former fascist leader Benito Mussolini during World War II. "They have no right interfering with the affairs of another country," Iraqi government official Yaseen Majeed told the Italian daily La Repubblica. "Mussolini's trial only lasted one minute." The dictator was executed by partisans and strung up in a square in Milan in April 1945.

Mussolini's granddaughter and European Parliament member Alessandra Mussolini said her "blood ran cold" as she viewed the images of Saddam's execution. "My mind immediately flicked to pictures of my grandfather, who also had his uncovered face exposed to the public for ridicule," she said.

dsl/reuters/ap