Tariq Aziz gives himself up to US

Iraq's former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has surrendered to US forces in Baghdad, it was reported last night. He is the highest-profile member of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein to have fallen into Washington's hands.

Mr Aziz, number 43 on the US military's list of the 55 most-wanted members of the former ruling elite, was this morning described as "under coalition control", by an official at US Central Command in Qatar.

"He turned himself in. He's pretty easy to identify," said the official. "He was a major regime figure for a long, long time. He may not know precisely where the weapons of mass destruction are hidden, but he probably knows generally about their WMD program."

Mr Aziz was neither a Muslim nor a member of the tight clan around Saddam. He made his career within the Baath party and quickly emerged ­ not least thanks to his excellent English ­ as the public face of Baghdad's diplomacy, especially in the weeks before the 1991 Gulf War.

Even his foes had a grudging admiration for his presentation skills and his unswerving loyalty to the regime he served. "He played a bad hand very well," the former US secretary of state James Baker said of Mr Aziz, then Baghdad's Foreign Minister, after their failed meeting on the eve of war in 1991.

Returning to the White House last night, President George Bush gave a thumbs-up when asked about the arrest. A Downing Street spokesman described the detention as "a welcome development".

The seizure of Mr Aziz, who features as the eight of spades on the Pentagon's deck of playing cards, means that 12 figures on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis issued by Central Command this month have now been caught.