Saddam Hussein was today hailed a hero and a martyr by hundreds of protestors across Iraq as a senior court official announced he almost halted the execution after guards taunted the former president as he stood on the gallows.

Demonstrations in the northern town of Mosul and in Sunni neighbourhoods in Baghdad took place amid warnings that violence could increase following the death of the dictator on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the US military announced today that a criminal investigation into the killing of an Iraqi soldier by a US Marine has begun.

In a statement the US military said the death happened after an "altercation" at a security post in Falluja on Saturday, but did not say what caused the fight or how the soldier was killed.

The statement said: "An Iraqi soldier was fatally wounded during an altercation with a Marine at a post at the Falluja Government Centre. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has initiated a criminal investigation."

The Marine has been assigned to administrative duties.

Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Salas, US military spokesman, said the incident would not impact plans to hand security for the area over to Iraqi authorities. "Marines and Iraqis from the two units continue to live, eat, and fight alongside each other," he said.

Some 300 Marines are stationed in Falluja alongside 700 Iraqi police and 3,000 Iraqi soldiers.

The incident could fuel anti-American tensions and lead to a rise in attacks from Saddam supporters who blame the US for his death.

"Saddam Hussein's assassination at the criminal hands of the US administration and its English, Zionist and Persian Safavid allies will only strengthen the determination of the Baath, its people and the Arab nation to wage jihad and resistance until the enemy is destroyed and Iraq liberated," Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, Saddam's fugitive deputy, said in an internet posting today.

Saddam's pre-dawn execution on Saturday was covertly captured on a mobile phone camera. Spectators can be seen taunting Saddam, yelling Shia slogans and telling him to go to hell.

Today, Munkith al-Faroon, a deputy prosecutor, said he had threatened to leave unless the jeering stopped. Under Iraqi law a prosecution observer must be present at an execution.

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