BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari voiced hope Saturday that the reported death of deposed leader Saddam Hussein's former right-hand man would dent the deadly insurgency gripping the country.

The death of Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri "could have positive effects for Iraq in terms of security, because of the psychological and financial consequences" it will have on the insurgency, Jaafari said.

"I consider that the regime and its agents died the day this regime fell (in April 2003) and that reports of the death (of Ibrahim) or any other agent don't bring anything new," he told journalists.

Saddam's outlawed former ruling Baath party issued a statement saying that Ibrahim, 63, had died of cancer on Friday.

Ibrahim was the most senior former Iraqi leader still at large since Saddam was captured in December 2003 and had a 10-million dollar price on his head. In Iraq, only Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the Jordanian-born leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq -- has a higher reward for his capture or killing.

He did much of Saddam's dirty work and commanded an entire army corps despite never having attended a military institution or school of higher learning.

Inhabitants of Ibrahim's hometown Dur nevertheless voiced defiance, clinging to the hope that their most famous son, recognised by his ginger hair and moustache, could still be leading the insurgency.

"I can't believe that he's really dead," said 30-year-old Muntasser al-Duri.

"If it were true, his body would have been brought to Dur to be buried," he said, recalling that fellow former regime member Adel Abdallah al-Duri was buried here after dying in a US detention facility more than a year ago.

The village, which lies not far from Saddam's hometown Tikrit, was quiet on Saturday, showing no sign of either sadness or anger over the death.

US and Iraqi troops have hounded Ibrahim, claiming on several occasions to have caught the King of Clubs in the US playing cards of former regime officials, but only ever managing to detain relatives, including one of his four wives and a daughter.

"I hope the news of his death is wrong," said Om Jamal, in her fifties.

"After Saddam Hussein was arrested (in December 2003), Izzat al-Duri was our only hope that power would one day be returned to its legitimate holders." "We are trying to confirm the report. If it is true, we will have lost the most important man of our region. Thanks to him, Dur is known around the world," said local official Moayed al-Duri.

"Izzat al-Duri never favoured anyone. Look. He didn't even build a hospital here, although he could have done," he added.

Villagers said that in the past they had received missives signed by the man Iraqis knew as the "Iceman" because of his humble origins selling blocks of ice in Mosul, egging them on to go and fight US forces.

Copyright © 1999-2005 Lebanonwire^®.com. All rights reserved.