A FORMER adviser to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has urged people to support British troops still operating in the Middle Eastern country.

Georges Sada has spoken in an interview by telephone from the USA with The Oxford Times ahead of his visit to the city this weekend.

The born-again Christian, pictured, will be talking to Oxford Bible Church about his book Saddam's Secrets.

Mr Sada, who was imprisoned after he refused to execute British and American prisoners of war during the first Iraq war, wholeheartedly supports the coalition invasion of Iraq.

He said: "Saddam was a dangerous man, not only for his own country and the region, but because he had the power and wanted to develop weapons of mass destruction. I am sure he was very dangerous, that any minute he could make harm to Britain and America as soon as he could do it.

"Iraq was living outside the world because of the sanctions, therefore the removal of that dictator and that regime was the right thing to do."

The former general believes Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction, but smuggled them out of the country in 2002, months before the invasion, disguised as humanitarian aid bound for Syria.

Mr Sada said protesters were wrong to want troops to leave Iraq immediately as it would leave a vacuum of power and damage security.

He said: "I am sure that people in Britain and America don't want their forces to be in other countries because many people have been killed, and Iraqis do not want foreign forces, but the situation is such that I think the forces should be there for more time, until the Iraqi army is completely trained. I think the people of America and Britain must support their forces."

But he is optimistic about the future and believes that peace and stability will happen.

He said: "Federalism is the best way of unity look at America. People in Iraq, they don't realise this. The majority of the people in Iraq are illiterate and to change from a dictatorship to democracy is not easy. It needs time. That is why I think the American and British have done a great job to change an evil regime and that is why they should continue their work."

Mr Sada will be speaking at 6pm on Sunday to the Oxford Bible Church, meeting at Cheney School, Headington.