Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said that hanging former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on the first day of the important Islamic festival Eid al-Adha was " painful and unacceptable", the official news agency MENA reported on Friday.

The 78-year-old Egyptian veteran president, who have ruled the most populous Arab nation for over 25 years, made the remarks during an interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which was published on Friday, MENA said.

Mubarak told the daily that he had asked U.S. President George W. Bush to intervene to postpone the execution of Saddam.

Saddam, deposed in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was hanged to death at dawn on Dec. 30 in 2006, the first day of the four-day festival of Eid el-Adha (Islam's feast of sacrifice), for crimes against humanity.

The execution has provoked anger among Sunni Iraqis who consider the timing of the execution as an insult for them.

Also in the interview, Mubarak urged Israel to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, saying the spread of such weapons posed a threat to the Middle East.

Mubarak, whose country has been trying to broker a prisoner swap deal between the Palestinians and Israel, said there is some progress in this issue but not as expected.

Egypt was ready to receive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by Palestinian militants since June 25, 2006, and hand him over to Israel after the release of the Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, he said.

Mubarak also called on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying supporting Abbas was very important and Olmert knew how to do so.

As for Israeli-Syrian relations, the president urged Israel not to reject Syrian overtures on peace talks.

Source: Xinhua