Here are reactions to the news: 

US president George Bush

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. 

French foreign ministry

France, which advocates like all its European partners the universal abolition of the death penalty, takes note of Saddam Hussein's execution. That decision belongs to the Iraqi people and to the Iraqi sovereign authorities. France calls on to all Iraqis to look forward and to work for reconciliation and national unity. More than ever the aim must be a return to the full sovereignty and stability of Iraq. 

Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer

The people of Iraq now know that their brutal dictator will never come back to lead them.

While many will continue to grieve over their personal loss under his rule, his death marks an important step in consigning his tyrannical regime to the judgement of history and pursuing a process of reconciliation now and in the future. 

US Democratic senator Joseph Biden

Iraq has closed one of the darkest chapters in its history and rid the world of a tyrant.  Every effort was made to afford Saddam the judicial rights he denied to the 148 innocent victims of Dujail and to hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis during his brutal reign. I hope that the families of his many victims can now begin the healing process. 

British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett

I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people. He has now been held to account. 

Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch

The test of a government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders ... History will judge the deeply flawed Dujail trial and this execution harshly. 

Larry Cox, executive director, Amnesty International USA

The rushed execution of Saddam Hussein is simply wrong. It signifies justice denied for countless victims who endured unspeakable suffering during his regime, and now have been denied their right to see justice served. 

Tomohiko Taniguchi, deputy press secretary of Japan's foreign ministry
 
We have acknowledged that the judgement has been made according to due process and pay respect to the legal procedures that the Iraqi government has taken. That said, what is most important in our view is to make this sentence not a new source of conflict but of reconciliation between the Iraqi people.
 
University of Chicago political science professor Charles Lipson

This will be a public accounting for the crimes that he and his regime undertook systematically over many years, but sadly it won't do much, I think, to set Iraq on a path to stability.

The nature of the internal divisions are too deep. Saddam's execution won't be able to set right the problems that we allowed to take root. 

Seth Jones, rand corporal political scientist/terrorism expert

This means very little in the long run for the level of violence over there. I expect this will trigger some revenge killings. But the insurgency has been caused by so many factors I don't think this will have any meaningful impact over the long term. 

Brazil foreign ministry

(Brazil) does not believe carrying out this sentence will contribute to bringing peace to Iraq. 

New Zealand

Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke is adamant Saddam's death will not improve the situation in Iraq. He says despite Saddam's reign of evil he should imprisoned for life, not executed.

Source: Reuters