Iraqi appeals court announced on Tuesday it had upheld the death sentence for the toppled president Saddam Hussein and he would be executed within the next 30 days.

In a news conference held in Baghdad, Munir Hadad, chief of Iraqi Appellate Court, told reporters that the court confirmed the verdict to hang Saddam.

Under the Iraqi current law, the execution is required to be carried out within the next 30 days and the government has the right to choose the date, he said.

Hours earlier, Iraqi national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie and Iraqi Higher Tribunal spokesman Raed Juhi said that Saddam's death sentence had been upheld.

Saddam was sentenced to death on Nov. 5 on crimes against humanity for killing of 148 people in Dujail village following a failed assassination attempt on him in 1982.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awadal-Bander got the death penalty over the Dujail killings. Their appeals are also denied by the court, which meant that they will face the same fate as Saddam.

Another defendant, former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was sentenced to life in prison. The appeals court said he should be executed.

Under the current Iraqi law, the decision of the appeals court must be ratified by a panel comprising President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents. Talabani has said that he would not sign death warrants, but would leave such a job to his vice presidents.

Saddam is facing the second trial of Anfal campaign, in which he is accused of killing thousands of Kurds. However, Iraqi officials have said Saddam would be executed regardless of that case.

However, many Iraqis fear the execution of Saddam would definitely result in an upsurge of violence, which will push the country closer to a full-scale civil war.

On Tuesday, a spate of assorted violence killed at least 47Iraqis and wounded some 109 others.

Three simultaneous car bombs exploded at the rush hour in a busy intersection in the Baiyaa district in southwestern Baghdad, killing at least 25 people and wounding 55 others.

A car bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad in the evening, leaving 15 people killed and 35 others wounded.

Meanwhile, some five people were killed and 15 others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated at the Baghdad Souq al-Haraj market in Bab al-Sharji area, an Interior ministry source said.

Earlier on Tuesday, three roadside bombs exploded in quick succession which killed a police lieutenant colonel and wounded four civil defense personnel, four policemen and an ambulanceman, the source said.

On the same day, unknown gunmen shot dead Maj. Gen. Imad Muhsen Jaafar, director general in the Iraqi Interior Ministry, while driving his car in the Maghrib Street in Adhamiyah neighborhood.

Moreover, the U.S. military said in a statement that seven of its soldiers were killed in Iraq on Tuesday.

Three of the U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in north west of Baghdad, another was killed when their vehicle rolled over along a dirt canal trail during a combat reconnaissance mission south of Baghdad.

On Monday, three U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad.

Media reports said that at least 90 U.S. military personnel died in Iraq in December till now.

The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,979, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.

Editor: Donald