Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday that he feared the recent death verdict against ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and its execution would fuel sectarian and ethnic violence in Iraq.

Mubarak made the remarks in statements to editors-in-chief of the Egyptian national newspapers and the Middle East News Agency (MENA) on his way back home Wednesday from his three-nation tour.

The trial of Saddam and six of his aides on charges of genocide against Kurds resumed in Baghdad on Wednesday after Saddam and two of his senior aides were sentenced to death on Sunday in a separate trial of Dujail case, in which 148 people were executed in the aftermath crackdown on the town following a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

On the situation in Iraq, Mubarak said that Egypt is making efforts to protect interests of the Iraqi people, stop bloodshed and support the Iraqi national unity.

Mubarak returned to Cairo on Wednesday after visits to Russia, China and Kazakhstan. While in Beijing he attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit which is seen as an important conference to promote China and Africa to construct new strategic partnership and strengthen cooperation between China and Africa.

Source: Xinhua